Not everyone sees things the way you do!
by C van Zyl
Summary: Tonks is a pretty cool witch. She's young, talented and funny. But there's a lot more to Tonks than people tend to realise. This is her story, told by her, about her. From her days at Hogwarts to joining the Order and meeting Remus. Follow her story as she makes mistakes, kicks some Death Eater butts and falls in love!
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER:**** I do not own anything related to Harry Potter by J.K Rowling.**

Author's Note: Hello, my name is Cloey van Zyl and this is a story I started writing way before I even knew what fanfiction was. I love the Harry Potter books and my favourite character is definitely Tonks. When I read the books, I always feel like her character and romance with Lupin isn't explored enough and so I decided that I would write my own version of the story. It's the same storyline but just from her POV and looking more closely at her background. It's one of my longest stories (sitting at around +- 38 800 words, yeah I know that might not be a lot for many but for me it is!). I'm not too sure about the quality of the writing because it was done a while ago but I just wanted to see what others might think of the story so this is the first chapter. The chapters are relatively short and I haven't finished the story, only really about half way, so I don't know if I'll ever be able to put the whole thing on . Anyway, enough of my rambling! I hope you enjoy:) Also, there are some OCs that I created, btw!

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PART 1

Chapter 1

_"Harry Potter? As in, _the_ Harry Potter?", I counted quickly on my fingers, "Wow, you're right. He's the right age. Did Gabriel talk to him?"._

_Francesca shook her head, "No, but everyone talking about him!". Gabriel was Francesca's younger brother and was a fifth year Hufflepuff. _

_"What house is he in?", I asked the question even though I had guessed the answer already. _

_"Gryffindor. Not very surprising."._

_We were both silent for a moment until, "Do you think we'll ever meet him? Maybe he'll need protection and they'll assign me to be his bodyguard when I finish Auror training.", my mind was perhaps a little imaginative. _

_"Who would he need protecting from? He's the Boy who lived!", Fran asked with a laugh. _

_"Well, I don't know! Some say He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named didn't really die, he could come back.". _

_Fran gave a snort. "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named can't come back, he'd be too scared of Dumbledore.", she paused before, "Plus, he'd be too embarrassed: he was defeated by a _baby_!". _

_I joined in the laughter and took a sip of my butterbeer. _

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One year before that afternoon in late September, I hugged my mum and dad goodbye and, seeing my best friend Chuck, I hurried away shouting, "Bye!" over my shoulder to my parents.

Chuck held out his fist, which I promptly pounded with my own. "Hey Tonks, how was the rest of your holiday?", his almost permanent grin lit up his face and I felt one form on my face as well.

"It was alright, but my mum had me practising household cleaning spells for weeks. How was yours?". Chuck started to push his trolley with his trunk and owl towards the luggage carriage and I walked next to him. "It didn't help at all did it though?", he gave a chuckle, "Mine was awesome, Jimmy helped me practise quidditch every day when he was visiting from America. I reckon I could take on the whole of the Slytherin team single handed and beat their stupid arses into the ground.". Chuck was on the Hufflepuff quidditch team as a beater and being so competitive, every year he prophesised Hufflepuff's victory and gain of the Quidditch Cup and every year when we didn't get it, he laughed it off and told everyone else on the team to stop lazing around and get some more practise for the next year. Chuck had told me many times to try out for the team but after the third time I tried out and was refused because I was "too clumsy, we all know you'll just drop the quaffle Tonks" by the captain, I had given up and instead had to be content to watching from the stands and occasionally helping Chuck to practise.

"Well you had better, Chuck. We need to win that cup this year; this is our last chance for us to win it. Next year we'll be leaving and if I don't see the cup in the Hufflepuff common room I'm gonna cry.". Chuck gave a sigh and, having finished unloading his trunk, we started for the nearest door onto the train, "Jeez, I know, I know! You're worse than Phillips is. You know he's been made captain this year? The last owl I had from him over the holidays was a five page essay about flying techniques. And the one before that was all about team reformation.", I gave him a sidelong glance and when I saw the pain-filled expression on his face, I laughed.

Chuck and I found ourselves a compartment and three minutes later the train pulled out of the station and the long journey to Hogwarts began.

Phillips soon found us and came into the compartment.

"Tonks! Chuckie!", he grinned and after giving me a hug and Chuck a fist pump, he sat down and sighed.

Chuck was the one who spoke the thought that was whizzing through all three of our heads, "So this is it, hey? Our last year at Hoggies.".

"Yep, and then we'll all be set loose on the world. I'm so excited to go.", Phillips was always very enthusiastic about leaving Hogwarts.

"I guess, but it'll be hard to say goodbye won't it?", a sentimental part of me sprang to life, "I mean, think of all the memories we have of the place.".

Phillips grinned at this, "Well, now is the time to make some more! We got one year left and luckily I've been made Quidditch captain. If there's anyone who's going to make sure we get that cup this year, it's me. And then there's the House cup of course. Tonks,", he turned to me and gave me what I guessed what a fierce, authoritive glare but all it managed to do was have me struggling to keep a straight face, "you better stop messing around in class so that we don't lose any points unnecessarily. That goes for you too Chuck.". Chuck and I swapped glances and then after half a second of silence in the compartment, we burst into laughter. Phillips glared at us but couldn't hold it for long and so one of our last train rides to Hogwarts began.

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A/N: Hope you liked it, please review and let me know what you think! Also, if anyone wants to beta this or my other Glee stories, please PM me:)- CvZ


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: ****I do not own anything related to Harry Potter by J.K Rowling.**

A/N: Hello, so I think I might be addicted to . I was sitting around doing nothing so I thought I might as well post another chapter of this:) When I was writing this, I made some of the chapters really short and because I'm so stubborn, I'm not changing them now so although this is officially the next chapter, it actually contains chapters two and three just because chapter three is really short and I don't want to post them separately. Hope you enjoy:)

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Chapter 2

On my first train ride to Hogwarts, it had not been five minutes before my ability to metamorphmasise; to change my physical appearance with a single thought; became a piece of well-known information among the other students on the train. I was sitting with three other girls in a compartment and maybe it was because I was eager to show them my skill, maybe it was because one of the girls was talking to a cute boy who had just appeared in the compartment and who I was trying to get to notice me or maybe it was just because it was my first day and I was so nervous that I couldn't control my ability that, without my knowing it, my hair started to change from its dark brown colour to a bright blue.

The one girl in the compartment, whose name was Francesca Truman, was the daughter of a family friend and was the only person on the train who knew of my ability before then. She was looking out the window and didn't see when my hair turned colour against my will. The girl sitting opposite me, whose name I had learnt earlier was Daisy Brown, did notice it, gave a sudden gasp and cried, "Your hair!". The other girl sitting nearest the door to the compartment, her name was Heather Phillips, and her cousin who she was talking to, only took a second to figure out who Daisy was talking about. They both stared at me until the Daisy asked in a wary voice, "How did you do that?".

I had obviously realised that my hair had somehow changed without my realising it. Without a mirror, I looked around for something reflective to look at so I could see my hair for myself. It was in the glass of the window that I saw my blue hair. I blushed but since being shy was never one of my traits, I sat up straight and said in a loud voice, "I'm a metamorphmagus.". My audience's faces, all except Francesca, were blank.

"A what?", Heather asked, her voice was rather haughty. Francesca was keeping silent so I again answered.

"It means I can change my appearance without a spell or a potion. All I have to do is think about changing something and then it changes.". Heather didn't answer but simply raised her eyebrows. Daisy looked excited and leaning forward, said, "So you just _thought _about making your hair blue and it went blue?", she made it sound like the coolest thing in the world. I grinned at the attention she was giving me, "Yeah, but in this case it changed by itself.". Heather's raised eyebrows had not lowered as she spoke to me with the same haughty voice. I wondered if it always sounded like that.

"So it just changed _by itself_?".

I smiled at her rudeness. "Yeah, sometimes I don't have full control of it.". Heather didn't reply.

"Do something else please?", Daisy's voice was still excited.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, change something else. Not your hair, lets see something else.".

I thought for a moment and then said, "Okay, how about this?".

I liked to be the centre of attention, I was outgoing and bubbly so I found I was most at ease when I was in the middle of a large group of people. One of the other things I loved most was making friends and even if I couldn't be friends with Heather, I could make Daisy and the boy whose name I still didn't know be impressed with me. No physical change was too difficult so even what I did in the compartment was as easy as anything. I wanted to impress and surprise them so I chose to do something a little more exciting. For a second I thought hard about what I wanted to change, my face screwing up while I focused and feeling my face change shape, and when I heard the gasp from the four people in the compartment, I knew I had succeeded. I looked across at Daisy who looked faint but grinned.

"No way! You look just like me!", Daisy had leaned even more forward, so that her nose was almost touching mine and stared into my eyes. Impressed she leaned back and said, "You even got those specks of brown in my eyes right! That's amazing! How did you do that?".

I gave a laugh and said in a breezy voice, "Simple, just like I told you. I thought about it for a moment and then I just changed.". I concentrated for another second and again a gasp filled the compartment, I had metamorphmasised back to myself, brown hair instead of blue though. With an astonished and highly impressed look on her face, Daisy said still in her excited voice, "You are so cool.".

I looked at Heather and saw that she didn't look too impressed with my show and defiantly didn't think I was as cool as Daisy thought I was.

A silence started to grow until, "What's your name?", it was the boy who had been speaking to Heather who had spoken.

"Tonks.", I held out my hand to him and without hesitation, he took it and while he shook it firmly and smiled, he said, "Good to meet you Tonks, I'm Michael Phillips.". I smiled back at him as I let go of his hand.

"Tonks? What sort of name is Tonks?", Daisy's voice was simply inquisitive but Heather laughed and when she didn't try to hide it, I knew she was trying to make fun of me. I cleverly ignored Heather and spoke to Daisy with a polite voice, "My real name is Nymphadora Tonks but I don't like Nymphadora so everyone calls me Tonks.".

Heather's voice was cold, "Why? Nymphadora's so much nicer.".

Heather was really starting to annoy me and though I usually didn't have a problem with venting my feelings, I didn't want to make enemies before we had even gotten to Hogwarts. Instead I inwardly rolled my eyes and forced my voice to be civil, "I hate it, so you better call me Tonks.".

"Whatever, but I still think Tonks sounds weird. Why would you want to be called by your surname?".

The boy, Michael, seemed to sense that everything was not as civil as my voice was. He intervened immediately, speaking to me, "Don't worry about Heather, you can call me Phillips and I'll make sure everyone calls you Tonks.", he turned to address the rest of the compartment as well, "See you guys later.". The others smiled and I was the only one who said cheerfully, "See you Phillips.", to which he shot me an extra grin before turning and closing the door behind him. Daisy's simpering look didn't disappear from her face for another ten minutes.

It wasn't fifteen minutes after Phillips had left than the door slid open and in the doorway stood a tall, dark-haired girl with a an upturned nose and an arrogant expression. Behind her, were three short girls who gazed at the tall girl with open adoration. I caught a glimpse of Heather's face and saw that the expression on her face was one to rival the adoration on the three tag-alongs behind the tall girl.

Heather immediately spoke with a higher than normal voice, "Natalie! Hi!", the tall girl, Natalie I supposed, looked at Heather with a cold stare but didn't answer. She looked again round at Daisy, Francesca and me before declaring to the entire compartment in a low, cold and slightly drawling voice, "I've heard that there is a metamorphmagus by the name of Tonks on the train.", the way her voice seemed to sneer when she said my name indicated that she already knew who I was. From her proud look and the knowledge that I had about my mother, I suspected why she would know me. Heather, Daisy and Francesca all turned to stare at me.

I looked up at Natalie with determined eyes and refused to cower at her icy ones, which were boring into mine.

"That's me.", I noticed I had straightened up in my seat.

"You'll find that you won't be able to make friends with everyone at Hogwarts. Some of us, like myself, have standards and won't tolerate traitors.". With that said, she turned and strode away, leaving the other three girls who were standing behind her to give me what perhaps they thought were glares before running after her down the corridor.

Once they had left there was silence in the compartment as they all stared at me, mouths hanging slightly open.

"Natalie Lestrange just _threatened_ you.", Daisy was the first one to break the increasingly awkward silence.

"Lestrange?", I echoed. No wonder she would threaten me, I was sure her family knew all about my mother _and_ me.

"Yeah she's a fourth yea-", Francesca began.

"What did she mean, traitors?", Heather cut across Francesca.

"I guess she meant my mum.".

"Your mum? What did she do?", Heather sounded very curious.

I didn't know how wise it was for me to tell them about my family's history but since Natalie, I was sure, would probably tell everyone in the school by tomorrow morning, I figured there was no harm in telling them a simple version.

"My mother married a non-pure blood, so her family disowned her.", I said simply. I didn't want to dwell on such things.

Heather though was suddenly very interested in me, "What family was she part off? Was it a pure blood family?".

Again, annoyed feelings bubbled to the surface but I forced myself to bite back any words I would regret later, I liked having friends. Not enemies.

"You might as well ask that Natalie girl. I bet she'd be more than happy to tell you.". That was the end of the subject that night, but I was slightly disappointed that I hadn't even made it to the school yet and I already had people who didn't like me.

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Chapter 3

It was threatening to rain as Chuck, Phillips and I made our way up to the school in the horseless carriages as we had many times before.

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A/N: Now you can see why I didn't want to post chapter 3 separately. I also didn't want to combine them because each chapter alternates between the present, her last year of school, and flashbacks to previous years. This way the different times are separate and no one has to get confused:) Please leave a review and tell me what you think!:D- Cloey


	3. Chapter 3

**DISCLAIMER: **** I do not own anything related to Harry Potter by J.K Rowling.**

Author's Note: Hi, thank you so much for everyone who's read this! This is the fourth and fifth chapter and together their a bit longer than the previous chapters so I hope you'll enjoy. Also, I had a little trouble posting this so the format might be a little bit weird but hopefully not too much so.

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Chapter 4

My first sight of the Great Hall showed me exactly the image that my mum and dad had described to me the night before. The hundreds of candles that hovered above the hall made it harder to look at the dark, cloudy sky past them.

Professor McGonagall was the scary looking witch who led us through the house tables and told us about the sorting hat. When she called my name, "Tonks, Nymphadora!", I gave a shudder because now everyone knew my real name. Phillips, who was also a first year and sat, newly sorted, at the Hufflepuff table, gave me a large grin. I shot a glare at him before sitting down on the stool and having the old hat placed on my head.

"Hmm,", the voice in my head I guessed was from the hat and I grew rigid while I waited to hear what it had to say to me, "There's potential here. Lots of it, you just need to reach it. You're a metamorphmagus, the last time I met one of those was hundreds of years ago; must have been at least two hundred. You've got bravery, you're not afraid to stand up to people. Hmmm, but what's that! I see it, plain and clear. You've got a heart. A big one. Hmmm, well, yes, I think you'll do well in...", my heart was pounding, what was it going to be? My father had been in Hufflepuff but my mother had been in Slytherin. The sorting hat had said I had a heart, did that mean Hufflepuff? But he'd also said I had bravery, did that mean Gryffindor? I gave up trying to guess and listened instead, "... Hufflepuff!". I took off the hat, got up from the stool and giving it back to Professor McGonagall, made my way to the table which was applauding heartily. I sat down and sighed, my hands were still shaking but I didn't have time to notice because Phillips, who was sitting next to me, was patting me on the back and congratulating me.

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Chapter 5

Dumbledore gave one of his best welcome-back speeches since I had been at Hogwarts, compared to the other six times I had heard the speech this time was one of, if not the, best one. I selfishly, but jokingly, said to Chuck and Phillips that it was because it was our last year and he was trying to be a bit more special. Truth be told, Dumbledore was the best headmaster and that was something everyone, teachers and students, agreed on.

After the normal wonderful food and feeling very tired, the Hufflepuffs walked sleepily down to the common room. Ahead of the group of us standing and waiting to get into the common room, a short fourth year boy tapped the rhythm of "Helga Hufflepuff" on the correct one of the barrels that were stacked carelessly next to the hidden doorway.

The round common room was cheerful as usual with its black and yellow chairs and comfy couches. The fire was roaring warmly and it seemed Professor Sprout had been in there earlier because new plants were hanging from copper hooks and placed around on tables. She sometimes came and brought new plants into the common room, stopping to chat about them with students. The only familiar plant was the one that hung directly above the fireplace. It had hung above the fireplace since anyone in Hufflepuff could remember and was a great favourite with everyone. Professor Sprout referred to it affectionately as Sally Songplant and since it never seemed to object to the nickname, we all called it Sally Songplant as well. It was very special because it was one of the few singing plants. It didn't talk to us but whenever it was happy it would start to sing. For a plant, it was extraordinarily talented and its songs were beautiful ones.

I turned and said goodnight to Chuck and Phillips before walking to the other side of the common room, to where two round wooden doors sat next to each other in the wall. I went through the right-hand side one, into the girls' dormitory. The boys' dormitory was on the left-hand side. I walked down the short corridor, past the other dormitory doors until I came to my one. Francesca and Daisy were sitting on Francesca's bed chatting and although Daisy called me over to join them, I said I was much too tired and instead got dressed and climbed into bed. Saying goodnight, I turned over with my back to them and closed my eyes, I knew it wouldn't be long before sleep came. I had never had a problem with falling asleep. That night though, I stayed awake long enough to hear, a few minutes later, Norah Arrington and Skye Hooper, the other two girls who shared my dorm, come in. They went straight to bed but Daisy and Francesca stayed up talking for a while longer, before my eyes grew heavy and delicious sleep took me.

The next morning I woke up at eight fifteen, after Norah threw a pillow at me and told me to hurry and get up or else I was going to be late. I yawned and after a few minutes of grogginess, I got up and managed to get changed. By the time I the Great Hall I had only half an hour to eat breakfast and get my bag from the dorm before my first class. I sat heavily down next to Chuck at the Hufflepuff table and after a cheery good morning from him, he handed me my new timetable for that year.

"Professor Sprout handed them all out at eight but when I told her you weren't here yet, she said she wasn't surprised and handed yours to me to give to you.", Chuck was defiantly a morning person and woke up at six every day. I, on the other hand, with my "mood changing" hair frizzy and a cloudy dark blue colour, was defiantly _not_ a morning person and always woke up late, this led to me often being slightly grouchy at breakfast but since everyone had grown used to this, no one noticed anymore.

I looked down at my timetable and this managed to bring a grin to my face, "Transfig first.".

Chuck grumbled, Transfiguration was Chuck's worst subject but since he had managed to get an 'Exceeds Expectations' in his OWLs, he took the subject at NEWT level.

The rest of my timetable looked like this:

Lesson 1-Transfiguration

Lesson 2-Defence Against the Dark Arts

Lesson 3- Herbology

Lesson 4- Charms

LUNCH

Lesson 5- Potions

Lesson 6- Care of Magical Creatures

"What's your timetable like?", I picked up Chuck's timetable which was lying on the table next to his plate. His timetable was slightly different to mine as he had a free period when I had Potions.

Chuck commented on my timetable which he was looking at, "You have no idea how happy I am that I don't have to do Potions.".

I scowled at him. Nobody liked Potions except for Slytherins, who always got special treatment from Professor Snape, the Slytherin Head of House.

I pulled a tongue at him and said, "Yeah, well, at least Potions isn't as boring as something like Herbology.". Chuck glanced up at the teacher's table to where Sprout was sitting, talking animatedly to tiny Professor Flitwick.

"Don't let Sprout hear you.".

I gave a snort, "Are you kidding? Sproutie loves me.".

It was Chuck's turn to snort. "She thinks you're too adventurous and misbehaved, isn't that why she never let you become a prefect?".

I laughed, "I didn't _want_ to be a prefect in the first place but she came around to all of us fifth years and acted as if she had denied this wonderful opportunity.".

Phillips, who had been talking to another friend further down the table, came and sat down opposite me and just caught my words. He cut into the conversation, "Hey, being a prefect is awesome. Remember when I gave Heather a detention and she got so angry at me she tried to hex me but it missed and hit Robbie Doyle instead?". We all laughed loudly at the funny memory.

"Well, giving your cousin a detention _is_ pretty harsh. But, I'll admit that Robbie Doyle needed to be hexed.". Robbie Doyle was a rude but surprisingly stupid Ravenclaw boy in our year.

Phillips gave a laugh and said, "Yeah but she deserved it.".

Neither Chuck nor I could disagree with Phillips.

"What's your timetable like, Phillips?", Chuck asked.

Phillips pulled out his timetable from his bag and handed it to Chuck.

"Ugh, Ancient Runes. Tell me again why you do that subject, Phillips?".

Phillips sighed and said defensively, "Because it's interesting okay?".

Chuck and I laughed and teased Phillips a while longer. Phillips had the same timetable as me except he didn't take Herbology and instead of doing Care of Magical Creatures, he did Ancient Runes, one of the more boring subjects at Hogwarts.

We left the Great Hall and made our way up to the Transfiguration classroom. Transfiguration, although being Chuck's least favourite subject, was my favourite one. Professor McGonagall had once said it was because I was a Metamorphmagus that I naturally had some sort of in-built skill for changing other objects into different things. From my first lesson, I had excelled at it and since then had always been top of the class. It was because of this that McGonagall liked me slightly more than the rest of the Hufflepuffs. (although my ever-changing appearance - especially my love of funky hair colour- seemed almost a pet-peeve of hers and almost a day didn't go by without her telling me to change back to normal; to which I would add with almost as much frustration as she, "I can't help it Professor! If I'm angry, my hair goes red and spiky, if I'm depressed it'll go pale blue. I'm a metamorphmagus, _it's what I do_.")

Defence Against the Dark Arts was taught by a large, tall wizard called Professor Wently. He was a good enough teacher and I found it was one of the most interesting subjects.

Herbology, although dead boring, was not very difficult to do well in and having Sprout as the teacher as well as your head of house was a plus as she often gave us special attention in class and was always offering extra lessons or help with homework.

Charms was another favourite of mine. Professor Flitwick was a great teacher and because of the nearly always practical lessons, they were a hell of a lot of fun.

Potions was my worst subject. Snape was awful and only ever expected the best and if you didn't achieve it, he hated you. Luckily, I wasn't too bad at it and with a bit of extra hard work, I had managed to achieve an 'Outstanding' in my OWLs and so was able to take potions as one of my NEWT level subjects.

Care of Magical Creatures was my last subject of the day. Everything about the subject and teacher, Professor Kettleburn, was thoroughly average. It was never a difficult subject and so when I got an 'Exceeds Expectations' in it, I decided to take it over Ancient Runes.

Chuck and I made our way back up to the castle after our last lesson of the day, chatting about the load of homework we had gotten. The night before, at the Welcoming Feast, I had told Phillips and Chuck that I wasn't going to slip back into laziness. Instead I was determined to keep up the hard work I had been doing for last the year. Before then, although I had always gotten good marks in the exams from my naturally good brains, I had never tried to get homework and projects done on time and though I had lapses sometimes, I had managed to change my ways.

So when Chuck and I got back to the common room, I took my bag over to a table near one of the windows looking out over the green grass and sat down, prepared to finish all my homework that night. Chuck was talking to Phillips by the fire, neither of them doing their homework. I had only just rolled out a new piece of parchment to start my Potions essay when Chuck came over to my table and distracted me.

"I only just remembered! Do you think any of the first years have beaten your record this year? Fred Marshal told me last year that I have to announce it tonight.".

It took me a while to figure out what he was talking about when I remembered my record for being late to more classes than any other first year on my first day. Every year a seventh year announces it to the rest of the Hufflepuffs and Fred Marshal, who had announced it last year, had told Chuck that he had to announce it this year. I looked over at a group of first years sitting on a cluster of armchairs on the opposite side of the round common room. I couldn't help but laugh at them.

"No, look at them! They're all so geeky.".

Chuck laughed, "You're right, look, they're doing homework! On the first day!".

I shook my head in disbelief, "Everyone knows that first years never get homework on the first day.".

"Well, I'm going to go ask them about the record thing.". He walked towards the group of nerdy first years who looked very frightened when they suddenly saw a seventh year at their table wanting to talk to them. He spent the next hour or two talking to all the first years trying to find out if anyone had broken my record while I turned back to my Potions essay, which I was determined to finish that night.

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A/N: Okay, so I hope you're enjoying this story, tell me your thoughts :D –Cloey van Zyl


	4. Chapter 4

**DISCLAIMER:****I do not own anything related to Harry Potter by J.K Rowling.**

A/N: Hello:) This is the next few chapters, thanks to everyone who's being reading!

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CHAPTER 6

My first day at Hogwarts in my first year had been terrible. I was horrible with directions and kept on getting lost on my way to class. By the end of the day, I was apparently famous, as I was told by a seventh year. Apparently, there was a record going in Hufflepuff for the most classes a first year got lost on the way to. The record had been three out of the six classes we had every day. I, after being getting terribly late on the way to the first three classes, hadn't been sensible enough to stick with someone else and ended up somewhere in the owlery on my way to History of Magic class. And when I tried to follow the rest of the Hufflepuffs, I found only after ten minutes, that they were second years and had followed the wrong people. Transfiguration, which was the last lesson of the day, was taught by Professor McGonagall.

"Tonks, you are late.", she addressed me as I ran into the classroom ten minutes late and panting heavily .

Between gasps I managed to get out, "Sorry...Professor...got...lost...bad with...directions.".

She pursed her lips and looked sourly at me.

"Make more of an effort tomorrow, Tonks. Sit.". I made my way to an empty seat while she carried on with her lesson.

That evening, after dinner, I returned to the Hufflepuff common room with Philips. It looked like almost everyone in Hufflepuff was in the common room because nearly all the seats were taken. We managed though to find two empty seats in the middle of the room. Luckily, it was the first day and as a couple of third years had told us during lunch, first years never got homework on the first day. We hadn't been sitting for five minutes before I heard a first year girl whose name I didn't know loudly whisper, "That's her! Over there, at that table.". I looked around to see who she was talking about but as I turned three seventh year boys came up to the table Phillips and I had been sitting at.

"You Tonks?", the first, tall boy said.

I was surprised but answered immediately, "Yeah, why?".

"You've apparently broken the record this year.".

I hated not knowing what was going on.

"Record? What record?".

The seventh year boy who was speaking to me wasn't smiling and I took this as a bad sign, "Record for most times a first year gets lost on the way to class on the first day. It's a record the Hufflepuff's have had for ages. According to her,", he pointed to the first year girl, who happened to be Skye Hooper, who had pointed me out to him, "You got lost and were late to five of your six classes today... which means,", he paused and addressing the whole common room now, who had been listening already anyway, "Tonks is the new record-holder!". The common room erupted into loud applause and cheers. I was completely taken aback, how had I only heard of this record now? I looked back up at the seventh year and saw that he was grinning and clapping along with the others. Before turning away, he said, "Well done pipsqueak.", and placed a chocolate frog on the table as, I supposed, my reward before walking away. I turned to Phillips who was laughing loudly. I grinned and picking up the chocolate frog and looking at the card inside (Merlin), said, "Wow, I got a reward for being late!".

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CC

CHAPTER 7

None of the first years had been able to beat my record. When Chuck had announced it that evening, everyone cheered for me, the undefeated victor.

School continued as usual. By the following week, all the new first years had learnt of my metamorphmic abilities and were no longer shocked when I suddenly showed up at dinner with a different nose or whatever it was. No one except the other Hufflepuff seventh years remembered the first time I used my abilities to entertain the common room, but sometimes, when I felt like a laugh, I would turn into teachers or other funny people and this would instantly bring more laughter and cheering to everyone.

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CHAPTER 8

It was two days after I had come first to Hogwarts, when one afternoon I sat alone, reluctantly doing my Transfiguration homework, in the common room. I heard someone sit down next to me on the couch by the fire but didn't look up until they said, "You're that metamorphmagus aren't you? Tonks.". I looked up and saw a stocky boy with blonde hair looking at me with excited eyes. I looked at him warily.

"Yeah, I am. Who are you?".

He grinned and said proudly, "I'm Charles Meens.". He didn't wait long before getting to the real point of him being there.

"Phillips was telling me all about how you can metamorphmasise. Will you show me?".

I hesitated and he added, "Please?" in a pleading voice. I sighed and rolling my eyes, I concentrated for a moment before, "Woah, that's so cool!", his voice was filled with wonder at my newly pink hair. I couldn't resist but laugh at him, I still hadn't gotten over how everyone else seemed to think what I thought was completely normal, the coolest thing in the world.

I hadn't seemingly been able to satisfy Charles's curiosity with my hair and he asked in the same excited voice, "What else can you do?".

Other people in the common room had heard Charles's excited voice and when I saw that I had a bigger audience I thought of something more amazing to do. With a brief thought, I metamorphmasised. I heard other people gasp and whisper to each other. Charles was beside himself. He gave a low and impressed whistle.

"That's amazing! You're Dumbledore!", before he continued, he noticed something else and fell back on the couch laughing loudly, "You can't change your clothes!".

I looked down and only then remembered that although I looked like Dumbledore, I was still dressed as myself and now Dumbledore was dressed as a girl in a skirt and everything. This and Charles's loud laughter brought everyone in the common room's attention. Some of them even got up and came closer to get a better look. Laughter filled the common room as I, in my element among a large group of people, stood up and paraded up and down the common room.

"Do Sprout!", shouted a fifth year who was standing nearby, laughing. Another brief thought, more laughter erupted and when I did a small dance, some people even starting cheering.

Within fifteen minutes, news seemed to have spread throughout Hogwarts and more and more Hufflepuffs came rushing into the common room and joined in the, now very loud, cheering and applauding with lots of gusto.

By the time I got to Snape, everyone was rolling around on the carpet in fits of laughter.

My last person was the gamekeeper, Hagrid who I had seen walking towards the forbidden forest during flying lessons. Seeing him in my clothes, which were far too small for him, and stomping around the common room brought on another bout of laughter, especially among the older students who knew Hagrid better.

By the time I had ran out of people to metamorphmasise into, the common room was starting to disperse but many of the other Hufflepuffs came up to me and congratulated me on certain people I had changed into.

Charles came up to me again and said, "That was awesome! People are gonna be stopping you in the corridors asking you to do Snape and Dumbledore again by tomorrow!".

"Thanks Chuck.", I said to him with a smile. He looked at me with surprise.

"Chuck?", his voice sounded confused.

"Yeah, instead of calling you Charlie, I figured Chuck sounded cooler. Know what I mean?".

He gave it a moment's thought before saying, "What about just calling me Charles?".

"You defiantly don't suit Charles. And besides, if we're going to be friends, you have to have a nickname.".

He looked as if he were about to protest but didn't. Instead he got his school bag and sat down next to me on the couch, pulling out his Transfiguration homework said, "Fine, I'll be Chuck, but if we're going to be friends then you're gonna have to help me with this Transfiguration.". He grinned at me and I knew we'd be best friends before long.

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A/N: Next chapter should be along on Wednesday( my time that is). Leave a review and tell me what you guys think:) -CvZ


	5. Chapter 5

**DISCLAIMER:**** I do not own anything related to Harry Potter by J.K Rowling.**

A/N: Hello:) Thanks to those of you who are reading this! I'm sorry if this story feels like it's a bit boring, I wrote it a while ago so I wasn't as experienced with writing. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy and keep reading!

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Chapter 9

As the weeks continued into our last year and first one month slipped away... then another... and another until we found winter already upon us. The grass that we normally saw from the windows in the Hufflepuff common room disappeared under a sheet on clear, cold white.

As it was going to be our last Christmas at Hogwarts, and I had never stayed at school for the Christmas holidays, I decided I wanted to stay this time, my last chance to. After convincing Chuck to stay with me, we worked on Phillips who gave up after a small resistance.

I wrote a letter to my parents telling them that I wanted to stay at school for the holidays and although they expressed their disappointment, they gave their okay and told me they would write again on Christmas Day.

As December continued, the castle began to be decorated with the usual array of Christmas trees and holly in the Great Hall and fake snow on the staircases. School continued until the week before Christmas when everyone seemed to be in a flurry to pack their things and say goodbye.

It was strange to be left behind in the castle when almost all the students had left. The Hufflepuff common room was deserted except for Phillips, Chuck and me. The castle was quiet and almost completely still. The only other students left at Hogwarts for the holidays, as we found out at the Christmas Feast, were five Ravenclaws, eleven Slytherins, six Gryffindors and the three of us in Hufflepuff.

On Christmas Day I woke and found a pile of presents at the foot of my bed and scrambling to get out of bed, reached for the closest presents.

After waving my wand and making all the tiny bits of wrapping paper disappear, I hurried out of the dorm and into the common room where I found Chuck and Phillips sitting by the fire chatting and eating chocolate frogs while Sally Songplant sang a cheery Christmas carol. After a small breakfast- we made sure to keep space for the Christmas feast at lunchtime- in the Great Hall, we went for a walk along the grounds which ended in a snowball fight and much laughter, saw Hagrid walking towards his hut near the edge of the Forbidden Forest and wished him a Happy Christmas, returned to the castle for lunch -which was magnificent considering the lack of students except for a few- and spent the rest of the day eating chocolate and relaxing in the common room. By the time it came for us to go to sleep, we had had a full day and I fell asleep almost as soon as I had crawled into my toasty warm bed.

Unfortunately for us, the seventh years had so much work to do that we spent most of our last couple of days of holiday in the common room, surrounded by books, quills and large rolls of parchment. We took three tables and pushed them together to form one huge one in the middle of the common room where we each took one of the three tables and set up for what we knew would be a long haul of work. At the beginning of the holidays we had shrugged at the load of homework we had and said we had plenty of time to do it "Later.", but when "Later." came, the amount to do seemed vastly more than it had seemed at the start of the holidays.

For hours late into the night I struggled over another nasty Potions essay, several pages to do in my Transfiguration textbook, three advanced spells to practise for Charms, studying of the work covered in past half year for an important test in Defence Against the Dark Arts, to check on our plants for Herbology and even a long essay for Care of Magical Creatures( a subject that we hardly ever got homework for). By the time the other students had returned the day before the new term started, I was completely worn out and felt as if I needed another holiday straight away.

The new term gave none of the seventh years any sort of holiday at all. Instead, all we were given was more work. The teachers kept on repeating how important our NEWTs were. It took all of my willpower to stick to my plan and do my homework as soon as I got it. I had to keep on reminding myself how much I wanted to get good marks to get into Auror Training.

My decision to become an Auror was one that was highly unexpected by everyone and I was even told on a few occasions that I should give up the idea, but I've always been stubborn and so meant to stick to my career choice.

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Chapter 10

"An _Auror_?", Chuck's voice was dubious and he gave me sidelong glance. We were sitting at dinner in the Great Hall. The rain pelted from the enchanted ceiling but never reached us, as it magically disappeared a few metres above our heads. It was early September and we had just begun our sixth year at Hogwarts.

"Yeah, you know what they are right?", I had already known that Chuck and Phillips wouldn't agree with my plan of becoming an Auror.

"Of course I know what they are!", Chuck sounded almost offended by my question, "But.. uh-". I knew what he was going to say before he had said it.

"You don't think I can do it.". My voice was plain and straightforward. I wasn't surprised by the guilty looks on Chuck and Philips' faces. Phillips seemed to try to put the fact of matter into the nicest words possible without offending or insulting me and his voice was slightly hesitant, "Well, to get into the, uh, training... you, um, need really good marks.".

I smiled at them, but their slightly dubious and guilty looks didn't leave their faces.

"Yeah, I know you do. But I've checked and I'm taking all the necessary NEWT level subjects,", I ticked them off on my hand as I said the list, "Transfig, D.A.D.A, Charms and Potions. All I have to do is get at least an 'Exceeds Expectations' in all my subjects and have a good criminal record and the last time I checked, I had no record... well, unless you count detention as a criminal offence.". I finished talking, and looked at them, waiting for one of them to speak. Philips was the one who broke the silence. It seemed he had decided to leave the matter of good grades for the time being, "When did you decide you wanted to be an Auror? Have you given it enough thought?".

"I thought about it all holiday! I'm not sure exactly when I first came up with the idea but I spent weeks and weeks doing research and asking around about it.". I wanted Chuck and Phillips to support me in my career choice and this meant telling them how determined I was to do it. Chuck spoke up again, he seemed to be trying to dissuade me from the idea, "Tonks, I don't know about this, to be honest, I can't see you being an Auror.", although I knew I shouldn't, my short temper seemed to be rising as Chuck continued speaking, "Are you sure you want to have such a dangerous job? I mean, you might have to _kill_ people-". My temper didn't have to rise much more before I got annoyed enough for it to show in my voice, which was impatient.

"Well what _can_ you see me doing Chuck? You both know I'll never be okay with a boring desk job. I need something exciting and I want to_ do_ something with my life, you know? And if that means killing dark wizards, then that's what I'll do.", I took a breath but when neither of them responded I carried on, "I thought, after you got over the surprise, you guys would be excited for me.".

Phillips and Chuck exchanged slightly uneasy glances before Phillips sighed and said in a gentle voice, "Don't get angry at us, Tonks. If you wanna be an Auror then of course we're gonna be excited for you. We're just trying to... warn you. Do you remember that Ravenclaw seventh year that was really clever and everything, Eddie Roger? Well, he tried to get into Auror training and he wasn't accepted because even _he_ didn't the marks he needed and they're really strict about that kind of stuff. They only take the best of the best.", I shot him a glare that conveyed my message perfectly and he added hastily, "Don't glare at me! I'm not saying you're not good enough, I'm just saying that you mustn't be too disappointed if you don't get in.".

I reigned in my temper and gave them a small smile and my determination came back into my voice as I said, "I'm gonna work bloody hard, and I know it's not going to be easy to get in, but I'll try my best and if I don't get in I'll try not be too disappointed.".

The subject was dropped after that and when we went back to the common room after dinner was over, I made sure I finished all the homework I had, I was determined to prove that I could work hard and get good enough grades.

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A/N:  Next chapter will be up soon:) -Cloey


	6. Chapter 6

**DISCLAIMER:**** I do not own anything related to Harry Potter by J.K Rowling.**

A/N: Hello everyone:) Firstly, a BIG thank you to those of you who were kind enough to leave a review and follow this story: You absolutely made my day :D I haven't finished this story and I'm kind of feeling the pressure to produce some more chapters, I hope that the quality of this story isn't too bad, since I wrote it a while ago... Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy!

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Chapter 11

"Tonks. A word?", I was walking towards the door of the DADA classroom after our lesson with Chuck and Philips when Professor Wently called me back. I told Phillips I'd see him later and asked Chuck, who had Herbology with me next lesson, to wait for me.

I turned to face Professor Wently who was standing at his desk at the front of the classroom.

"Yes, Professor?".

"I just wanted to tell you well done on your excellent test results.".

I smiled modestly. "Thank you Sir.".

"Professor Sprout tells me that you would like to be an Auror when you leave school.".

I smiled rather embarrassedly, I wondered if he was going to tell me not to try it. I braced to defend myself.

"Yes, you see I've done lots of research and I know I'm taking all the necessary classes and my grades are up to standard, I think.".

Professor Wently smiled encouragingly.

"I must say Tonks, if you keep up the hard work you've been doing in my subject and do as well as that in your other ones, I see no reason why you shouldn't become an Auror.".

I grinned at his praise. "Thank you Professor, I know the Auror office only take a handful of new trainees every year but I really would like to try.".

"I'm sure you'll get in, you're a hard worker and if you put in the effort, you'll reap the rewards. But I mustn't make you late for your next class. Off you go.".

Still smiling, I hurried out of the classroom and finding Chuck standing outside, I told him what Professor Wently had said before he could even ask.

Professor Wently's praise and encouragement renewed my stamina and I felt more confident about the whole career choice thing. The long hours that I spent studying didn't feel as long or as hard because I had seen some of the rewards of my efforts in all of my subjects and knew that the hard work was paying off, even Chuck and Phillips had to admit that.

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Chapter 12

As my last March at Hogwarts rolled around and Hufflepuff's second to last match of the season came closer, tensions grew between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. The problem was unspoken but everyone knew that everyone else knew that Gryffindor had always, in general, been better than Hufflepuff at Quidditch. This weighed heavily on the whole Hufflepuff team but it seemed to affect Chuck most of all. An hour didn't go by without Chuck mentioning the upcoming game.

A group of Gryffindors walked past a group of us Hufflepuffs in the corridor while on our way to D.A.D.A and though the Gryffindors paid us no attention, Chuck felt the need to pick up the increasingly annoying subject again.

"We have to win this match. I don't know what I'll do if we don't.", his voice was almost hysterical.

"Will you stop it, Chuck?", Phillips was glaring at Chuck and the rest of us decided it was best to stay out of it.

Phillips, who was feeling the pressure just as much- if not more than- Chuck, dealt with his nerves in silence, brooding over them rather than voicing his feelings all the time like Chuck did. The nerves, lack of sleep, pressure from the rest of the team and coupled with the fact that Chuck kept bringing the subject up meant that Phillips had a permanent bad temper and snapped at anyone who tried to speak to him.

"I'm sorry but I can't help it if I'm nervous.", Chuck voice was still hysterical.

Phillips' voice plainly showed his anger, "We're all nervous but none of us bring it up every five bloody minutes.".

Chuck now was starting to get angry too and I tried to catch his eye and silently tell him that he should just walk away and leave Phillips alone. Chuck purposely evaded my eyes and barrelled on in an accusing voice, "At least I don't stew in silence and attack anyone who says anything to me.".

Phillips looked like he wanted to hit Chuck but luckily managed to restrain himself and settled for saying simply, but with more venom in his voice than perhaps necessary, "Maybe if you're scared then, you shouldn't say anything to me.". With that, he stormed off muttering, "Stupid git." Under his breath, but loud enough for all of us Hufflepuffs to hear. Chuck glared at Phillips as he disappeared around the corner and then turned and stormed down another corridor without a word.

The silence between Chuck and Phillips lasted another week before the rest of the Hufflepuff team came complaining to me about the two of them continuously ruining practices with their stupid arguments, one of them resulting in a fight that thankfully was short lived since it was quickly broken up by the rest of the team.

"You're their best friend, Tonks. Can't you tell them they're being stupid?", pleaded Milly, the fifth-year who played Keeper.

I sighed and brushed some of my long, silvery-blonde hair out of my eyes. Being in the middle of Chuck and Phillips' arguments was tiring for me too. They always wanted me to take sides and I was sick of fighting with them because I said I wouldn't.

"I've tried! They're both being so stubborn and annoying, they won't listen." .

"But if they don't sort this thing out then we're not gonna get any practice and then we really _will_ lose.", Ned; a sixth-year and the other beater; said is an impassioned voice.

I looked at all the hopeless faces of the team members who were crowded round the table I was sitting at trying to finish my Charms homework. I gave another sigh and putting down my quill and getting to my feet, I said, "Alright, alright. I give it one more try. But if it doesn't work, then don't blame me, okay?". They all nodded.

I started towards the door that led out of the common room. Phillips spent most of his time in the library doing his homework. He didn't want to come to the common room in case Chuck was around and he knew Chuck would never go to the library. I decided to start with Phillips first since I knew he was more sensible than Chuck and more likely to see reason.

* * *

The library was almost completely empty and I found Phillips sitting alone at a table by a window, working on his Ancient Runes translations.

"You know you've got to do something.", my voice was as calm as possible, I didn't to set off another shouting match.

He didn't look at me as I sat down next to him.

"About?", He continued writing as he spoke.

"Chuck. The team's getting worried.".

Phillips still didn't look up.

"Of course they're worried. Why wouldn't they be? With a beater like Chuck.".

I sighed, exasperated. I was actually surprised with Phillips' behaviour lately. Phillips was always the sensible one. He was normally the one who broke up fights and got everyone to agree on something. That was probably why he had been made captain in the first place, because he was the one who could bring the team together and get them to work hard. Lately though, he had been part of the problem and his arguing with Chuck was breaking up the team and ruining their chances of getting the Quidditch Cup.

Mostly, it was strange for me because I was normally the one who Phillips had to talk to about not fighting with others.

"They're worried because their captain is letting one little disagreement with Chuck cause such havoc.", Phillips had stopped writing but was still staring down at his page.

My voice was still gentle and calm as I continued, " Come on Phillips, this was supposed to be the year we finally won reclaimed that cup and I know you aren't going to let some fight with Chuck mess that up.".

He didn't speak for another minute or two. When he finally did look up at me, he looked very ashamed of himself.

"Do the team still even want me as captain?".

I laughed, "Of course! Who else could be their captain?" .

He looked doubtful, "But I've messed up so many practices. I don't know if we can get back on track in time for the match.".

I kept my voice light as I said, "Hey, I'm sure every captain has their mess-ups, right? Don't stress about it.".

I stood up; I knew I had won over Phillips. It was Chuck, who was far more stubborn, that I had to worry about now.

"I'm gonna go talk to Chuck.", I smiled and stood up to leave.

Phillips started packing up his books and said, "Okay. I need to talk to the rest of the team, I owe them an apology.".

* * *

I found Chuck in the boys' dorm, sitting on his bed reading some book for Herbology. He looked up as I walked in and, scowling, turned quickly back to his book.

"What?", his voice was annoyed and abrasive. I put my hands up in a surrendering way and walked forwards cautiously. I stopped beside his bed but thought it prudent to sit on the bed next to his which happened to be Phillips'.

"Hey, I come in peace.". Once I sat down, I thought it would be okay to lower my hands. He still scowled down at his book.

"What do you want?", he asked again. I tried to think of the best way to go about this, but knew there was no easy way. I settled for just saying the facts straight out. I took a breath and steadied myself for his anger.

"Chuck, you have to stop this fighting with Phillips.".

Without raising his voice he instead said simply, and very uncharacteristically, "No.".

I wasn't expecting that answer.

"What do you mean, 'No'?".

Chuck looked up at me with an almost indifferent expression on his face, "I didn't start this. He must be the one to stop it.".

I felt smug as I said, "Well in that case its already over Chuck.".

He gave me a questioning look.

"I just talked to him. He doesn't want to fight anymore.".

Chuck's face was certainly surprised. "He doesn't?"

"No. Do you?".

He looked uncomfortable at my question.

"Well...er... I'm not just going to forgive him like that.", he snapped his fingers.

"Chuck, you guys have been fighting for over two weeks. You don't even remember what you're fighting about.".

He glared at me. "We're fighting because he's an arsehole and a terrible captain.", his voice was spiteful but I knew his heart wasn't really in it.

I said gently, "You don't mean that. Phillips is one of your best friends; you've said it many times before".

He tried to keep up his anger but after a moment, it fell apart.

"No I don't and," he paused "yeah, he is.", his voice was quiet and he looked down at his book again, avoiding his eyes.

"Will you go and talk to him?".

He didn't look up as he mumbled a, "Yeah, whatever.".

He got up and went down to the common room while I followed.

Phillips was sitting around a table in the common room, clearly having a heart-to-heart with the team when Chuck came into the room and I had just arrived in time to see Phillips see Chuck, slowly stand up and move towards him. They stared, blank faced at each other for a second before Phillips held out his hand to Chuck.

After a slight moment of hesitation, Chuck shook hands with Phillips and, while no words were spoken between them, everything was forgiven and forgotten. A chair was pulled up for Chuck and he joined the rest of the team at their table.

I, on the other hand, went back to my table and with a satisfied smile on my face returned to my Charms homework.

* * *

For the next few days, I hardly saw Chuck or Phillips because they were training with the rest of the team in every spare moment, trying to make up for the practices they had lost.

When the long awaited match finally did come on the windy Saturday morning, it was almost a relief. Philips and Chuck agreed heartily that after all the stress, they just wanted it over and done with.

With little breakfast, a half-sort of pep talk from me and then a hurried hug and "Goodluck!", Chuck and Phillips left the great hall with the rest of the team.

I walked down to the field talking animatedly with Francesca and Daisy about the match.

We found some good seats in the stands and when the Hufflepuff team walked out onto the field, we joined the rest of the Hufflepuff's in the cheering.

The game started off well, it seemed that we might even win. But the Gryffindor team were amazing and in the end, they managed to take the snitch from right under the nose of Phillips, our seeker.

The game was over and through the cheers of the Gryffindors and the streaks of gold and red as their team rushed to the ground, were seven miserable looking Hufflepuff players who landed and walked slowly back to the changing room. All around me on the stands were Hufflepuff who looked sad. None of them looked very angry. Just sad. I hurried through the stands and down to the changing room where the Hufflepuff team were quietly pulling on their robes. None of them looked up as I entered the changing room until I put a hand on Chuck's arm.

Perhaps it seems silly to get so distraught over just a game but I knew that quidditch was important to him and the rest of the team and so when Chuck looked up at me and I saw the expression on his face, I could see he was truly gutted by the loss.

I hated seeing everybody looking so grief-struck. The common room was horribly silent and even I, who was normally the cheerful one who could see the bright side of things, couldn't crack a smile.

But of all the Hufflepuffs, no one looked more depressed than Phillips. Except maybe Chuck, who had taken to staying up in the boys' dorm all day. Although neither Chuck nor Phillips ever said anything about it, I knew that they held themselves personally responsible for the loss.

* * *

The Easter holidays were fast approaching and I knew that after we came back to school, I would be too busy with the upcoming exams to do much else. I tried to make the most of the last free days I would have at Hogwarts.

Phillips, who had used his depression over Huffepuff's loss to fuel his will to win, had made the rest of the team work harder than ever almost every day so that we wouldn't lose against Slytherin in our last game of the season.

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A/N: Next chapter soon!-CvZ


	7. Chapter 7

**DISCLAIMER: ****I do not own anything related to Harry Potter by J.K Rowling.**

A/N:  Hello everyone:) A big thanks to those who have read and followed this fanfic! Hope you enjoy this chapter:)

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Chapter 13

The train sped along past the blurry countryside. Both Chuck and Phillips were going home for holidays as well.

As much as I loved Hogwarts, I was excited to go home; I hadn't seen my parents for seven months and I missed my home.

The train pulled into platform nine and three quarters and I immediately saw my parents standing waiting for me in the middle of the crowd.

I hugged goodbye Phillips and after saying a quick hello to his parents, walked with Chuck over to my parents.

"Nymphadora!". My mum pulled me in for a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. I scowled for a moment. My mother was one of the only people who called me by my full first name, even my dad, who was shaking hands with Chuck, called me Dora and hardly ever by my full name.

After my mum had released me, I gave my dad a hug and, giving a hug goodbye to Chuck, left through the barrier and walked for a few minutes out of King's Cross Station before apparating near my house. My dad and I talked about quidditch while we walked through the front gate and into the house. I levitated my trunk up the stairs and set it onto my bed. I decided I could unpack it myself so I opened it up and waving my wand in a sweeping motion, expected my things to come flying out and neatly into my cupboards. Instead, my things came flying out of my trunk and spinning all around the room. I yelped as a couple of robes flew at me and ducked as a spell book barely missed my head. To add to my luck, my mum chose that moment to come to my room to ask if I wanted tea. Upon opening my door, she found me crouching on the floor, avoiding my flying things. She immediately pulled out her own wand and with a small flick, everything dropped to the floor, motionless again.

"Nymphadora!", her voice was exasperated.

I scowled at the use of my name and said, "I was trying to get my stuff to put itself away.".

She put her hands on her hips, something she always did when she was annoyed and feeling bossy, and said, "If you only practised more and let me help you, household spells really wouldn't be so difficult.".

I tried to take a stand but I failed and with a graceful wave of her wand, my mother had all my stuff gliding neatly into their rightful place.

Being back at home was wonderful. I had missed it a lot, but my mother was really starting to get on my nerves about being neat.

It had been barely a day before the never-ending argument resumed.

"Nymphadora, won't you just let me teach you some simple spells? You can't even cook. What's going to happen when you get married and you can't even cook for your husband?".

I rolled my eyes and strode out of the kitchen where I had been spreading jam on a slice of toast for myself, saying over my shoulder, _"If _I get married, maybe my husband can be the one to cook.".

I had always been what you would call a feminist. My mother, who was the complete opposite- a good, neat, house-wifely woman who excelled at cleaning spells- had never understood my want to sometimes be "just one of the boys".

She wasn't one to let something go either and go strode out of the kitchen and followed me all the way to the dining room where I had sat down at the table with my toast and unrolled a new piece of parchment to begin my Care of Magical Creatures homework.

"Dora, what about if I just teach you a spell every day?". I didn't bother to look up at her.

"No.". I dipped my quill into the ink and wrote my name at the top of the parchment.

"How can you say no if you won't let give it a chance?".

"No.". I looked at the first question on the worksheet about dragons Professor Kettleburn had given us to do over the holidays: List and describe five ways in which dragons are being maltreated by wizardkind.

"You do so well in charms, I'm sure you pick them up well.".

"No.". I smiled inwardly; the question was easy. I began to scribble down the five ways as my mum became more exasperated.

"Ted, will you _please_ come and convince your daughter to just let me teach her some cooking spells?", my dad had, unfortunately for him, chosen that moment to walk past the door. Mum had spotted him and tried to get him to help her cause.

I looked up and grinned at him as my mum's back was turned, my dad hated being pulled into arguments between my mum and me, especially this argument. He looked a bit sheepish as he said with his hands up in a surrendering gesture, "Don't drag me into this, Dromeda. If Dora doesn't want to, she doesn't have to.". My mother shot a glare at my dad before he could hurry away.

I quickly dropped my head down towards my work just as my mum turned back to me.

Her voice was low and threatening when she spoke, "One of these days, Nymphadora, you are going to wish you learnt some of those cooking spells and then you'll be sorry.".

I kept my eyes down and although I contained a snort, a small smile appeared on my lips as I simply replied, "Mmhhmm. Sure Mum. If you say so.".

While she left the room without another word, I added in my head with a chuckle to myself _Ha! In your dreams, mum! That'll never happen._

The holidays were only one and a half weeks long and with so much of my time spent doing homework, the week and a half went by in a flash. All too soon it was the morning of my departure and I stuffed my things back into my trunk and checked my room three times for anything I might have left behind-I almost always forgot something and my mum threatened every year that she wouldn't send the forgotten things to me by owl if it happened again. When my trunk was ready to go and sat outside the front door of the house. Touching my trunk with my left hand and holding my wand in the right, my mum, dad and I apparated to just outside Kings Cross Station.

Saying goodbye to my parents was rather hurried since it was almost eleven o'clock and I still had to load my trunk onto the luggage carriage.

I gave a quick hug to both of my parents and my dad said, "Just think Dora, the next time you'll see us, you'll be finished with school!". I wasn't so sure whether to be happy or sad but I would worry about that later on. In the meantime, I grinned and hurried off soon afterwards.

* * *

A/N: Until next time! Have a good week:) And leave a review? -Cloey


	8. Chapter 8

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything related to Harry Potter by J.K Rowling. **

Author's Note: Hi everyone! First off thank you for reading this and for the follows! Also, my friend Nastycad has recently posted her new story called 'Whistling in the Dark'. It's about an interesting friendship/deal between Lupin and Regulus Black. Please go and check it out, it's her first English story and it's really good! :D

* * *

Chapter 14

I quickly found Chuck on the train and the journey back to Hogwarts began.

Once back at the school, there was dinner and then the common room where everyone sat chatting and catching up until well into the night.

The next morning classes began again and we seventh years were piled once more with homework and revision for our upcoming NEWTs- they were just two months away. Phillips had already set up practices for the rest of the Hufflepuff team almost every day since Hufflepuff's last game of the season was exactly a month away and he was determined to win against Slytherin and claim the Quidditch Cup.

The days went by in a blur of work and stress and nerves. In what seemed no time it was time once more for Hufflepuff to try to win at quidditch. The tension was sky-high in the common room on the Saturday morning of the game and while I hurried to finish off my Transfiguration homework before the game, the team sat crowded round a table, Phillips frantically whispering instructions to them, even though it was clear they were all lost in separate worlds of their own, oblivious to Phillips' non-stop talking.

"All right guys, let's go down to the field.", Phillips got up and tried to rouse the team to follow him. As if they were in a daze, they each got up and wandered out the door after him.

Half an hour before the game was about to start, I packed away my Transfig homework and walked down to the field with some other Hufflepuffs.

There was a certain hesitation in the Hufflepuff team as the game began but as time went on, they gained confidence and soon were ahead of Slytherin by fifty points.

One of the Slytherin chasers had just managed to score another ten points when Phillips suddenly tore off skyward. It took another five seconds before the Slytherin seeker noticed and sped after him. Phillips and the Slytherin seeker swerved and dived for a minute or two before we Hufflepuffs erupted into thunderous cheers. Phillips hurtled towards the ground with the rest of the team and the yellow and black clad spectators ran onto the field. The team were surrounded by Hufflepuffs already by the time I got there and I had to fight my way through the crowd to get to Phillips and Chuck.

"You did it! You did it! YOU DID IT!", I was yelling at the top of my voice as I pulled Phillips into a huge hug.

Slowly all the Hufflepuffs made their way up to the castle and into the common room where the party was already being arranged. I was immediately enlisted to get the food and drinks and sped off towards the kitchen with Francesca. We hurried out of the common room, into the corridor, up the few steps and through a door into the Entrance Hall. We turned to the left, to the door right next to the one we had just come out from. Just as we had opened the door and stepped into the corridor that led to the kitchens, we heard someone giggling and were startled and embarrassed to see a couple pushed up against a wall. I didn't recognise either of them at first glance. Luckily for Fran and I, the girl, who had been giggling, had noticed the light that flooded in from the Entrance Hall and had also noticed us standing in the doorway. She gasped and pushed the boy quickly away from her, obviously scared that Fran and I were teachers. The boy, who had been pinning the girl to the wall and kissing her neck, hadn't noticed the open door or the "intruders" and confusedly, and irritably, asked the girl, "What?".

It was only when the girl didn't reply that he turned around and saw me and Fran standing in the doorway.

When I saw his face, I instantly recognised him. How could I not?

He could see we weren't teachers and said in a rough voice, "Piss off.". He was obviously very annoyed about the interruption.

I stepped forward into the corridor, where I knew the single, dim lantern in the corridor would illuminate my face.

"_You_ piss off, Triton. We're going to the kitchens.", my voice was just as harsh and when he saw who I was, Triton seemed to back down slightly. He grabbed the hand of the girl he had been kissing and pulled her along with him as he stomped roughly past me and out into the Entrance Hall.

Once they were gone, I walked down the corridor to where the door leading into the kitchen was. I pushed it roughly and the house elves came running up to Fran and me, ready to fetch any food or drink we wanted. Once we had all that we needed, Fran and I made our way back to the common room.

"That must have been Sophie Sutherland, that Gryffindor sixth year. I heard Triton and her were going out.".

I didn't really want to talk about the arsehole Triton Ward, so I just mumbled an uninterested "Must be." and walked faster so we could get back to the party and its distractions sooner.

* * *

The party did not prove to be a good distraction. If it hadn't been for Francesca, I would have been able to forget all about Triton and Sophie. No sooner had Fran and I arrived back from the kitchens with all the food, had Fran grabbed Daisy and told her what we had seen. Daisy was Daisy and so the news didn't stay put. Half an hour later and the whole common room was talking about Triton and Sophie.

"It's like we didn't even play Quidditch, let alone _win_!", I ranted to Chuck as we sat on one of the couches, "I mean, what's so amazing about Triton snogging some random girl anyway? It happens all the time.".

Chuck chuckled and said dryly, "Yeah, and one of those times it was you.".

I scowled heavily at him and gave him a, what I thought to be, hard punch in the arm. "Oh, fuck off."

This made him chuckle again. "I'm just stating a fact. It seems to me that you're jealous.".

I gave him another punch. He seemed to feel it more the second time and rubbed his arm, complaining, "Stop that! You're the only one who's so bothered about Triton. Everyone else just likes to gossip. By tomorrow morning it will old news and everyone will have forgotten it. So stop punching me and just forget about him.".

"I can't forget about it because everyone keeps talking about him and reminding me about it!", I growled, scowling more than ever.

I went to bed early that night.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading! Next chapter will be awesome, so I hope you'll keep reading :D


	9. Chapter 9

**DISCLAIMER: ****I do not own anything related to Harry Potter by J.K Rowling.**

Author's Note: Hello everyone:) I was supposed to only post this chapter tomorrow but I couldn't wait so here's chapter 15. It's much longer than the other chapter and I've come to love this chapter even though Tonks is mistreated:( Hope you enjoy nonetheless and thank you so much for the follows:D

* * *

Chapter 15

It was my fifth year at Hogwarts and as the teachers had warned us, the workload became heavier and heavier and I found myself actually having to put in some effort to achieve the good marks I was used to.

When we got back from our short Christmas holidays, the pace increased even more.

Even Care of Magical Creatures, a subject I had never expected to be hard became more difficult.

Professor Kettleburn was teaching us fifth years about unicorns and because he said that they were going to make up a large section of both the theory and practical parts of the OWL, he thought that by giving us an assignment on them, we would learn much more on the creatures.

"It will be an excellent way to really get to know these creatures. ", he had told us one lesson in early February, "You'll be working with the animals at the same time as doing a study on them. I'll spilt you up into pairs and each pair shall be given a separate topic on which they will do research and make their own observations. You will be handing in an essay and a couple of biological drawings on the topic.".

Just great. An assignment. And just at the wrong time too. I had so much other homework and a million assignments already. Honestly, what was Professor Kettleburn thinking? I looked over at Chuck and we exchanged a couple of eye-rolls and silent rants while Proffessor Kettleburn answered someone's question on the assignment.

"Right everyone!", Kettleburn said to gather our attention again, "I have a list of the pairs that I'm going to call out so listen up because I'm not repeating myself.".

Kettleburn started calling out the pairs. I hoped that I would at least get to work with someone who would do some work and not be lazy.

"Tonks and Ward!". I looked around the class until I found Triton Ward who was doing exactly the same. As soon as we found each other in the crowd, he smiled and came over.

"Hey Tonks", Triton Ward was someone you would describe as average or, better still, boring. His blonde hair and grey eyes wouldn't be spotted in a crowd as being extremely good-looking but he wasn't the ugliest boy in the world. His smile was ordinary and I supposed he was fairly friendly. I knew who he was but I couldn't say I knew him at all, had I ever even spoken to him? Distracted while trying to remember, I said hello.

"Do you want me to get the topic from Kettleburn?", I guessed he was trying to win me over.

I smiled, he seemed alright and I was always one to be friendly, "Great, thanks Triton."

"No problem.", he walked away and returned a few minutes later with our topic which was written on the piece of parchment that also contained the rubric.

"What topic did we get?", I asked as he came nearer. He handed me the parchment.

"The unicorn's habitat is under threat from several separate and joint factors. Describe the unicorn's habitat thoroughly, discuss in detail how it is under threat and give three possible ways in which wizard-kind can save their habitat.", I read off the parchment, "Not too bad I guess.".

He frowned, "But boring as hell.".

I laughed bitterly, "And it counts for fifteen percent of our year mark.".

The rest of the lesson was spent trying to work out times at which we could meet to do research on our assignment. Professor Kettleburn had made sure that none of the pairs were in the same house, making it fair to everyone. This unfortunately meant that we couldn't work on the project in our common rooms and would have to spend extra time in the library, a place that no one spent any extra time in if they could help it.

* * *

"Could he not have just put us with people in the same house?", Chuck complained to me as we headed up to the castle after the lesson, "Or with people we at least _liked_?". Chuck had been paired with Xavier Jameson, a horrible Slytherin boy.

I gave Chuck a sympathetic look but he objected and said, "Well,_ you_ can't complain! You got that Triton bloke.".

"I don't even know him though, he could a complete psycho!", I tried to defend myself but Chuck wouldn't take it.

"Still, at least he's a Ravenclaw. He's probably a boffin who'll do all the work for you. Jameson told me straight up that I'm doing the project and putting his name on the top.", he scowled and added under his breath, "Stupid arsehole.".

I tried not to laugh, Chuck's rantings were terribly funny.

Phillips listened to Chuck's sob-story at dinner with a grin on his face, he didn't bother hiding his laughs at Chuck's anger.

"At least this way you'll be able to work on your own and get a good mark for the assignment without having to deal with him all the time.", Phillips offered up the good side of the situation with a shrug.

Chuck sighed and chewed on his pork chop slowly, thinking over Phillips' words.

"You know, I think you're right... maybe I got off lucky this time... maybe Tonks is the one to feel sorry for... having to deal with that stranger Triton Ward.".

"Nobody actually knows this guy do they?", Phillips asked.

I shrugged, "I think he's in our Transfig class isn't he?". We all tried to think about it.

"I think he does Herbology with me.", said Chuck thoughtfully, "But you know the guy just isn't one of those noticeable people, sort of fades into the wallpaper doesn't he?".

I rolled my eyes, "I'm sure he's not _that_ unnoticeable Chuck. I mean, we knew who he was, we've just never spoken to him.".

"There are only forty people in our year, Tonks. Of course we know everyone in our year by name.", Chucks pointed out.

"He's just not very exciting.", Phillips made the compromise. As always.

We left the subject at that. Triton Ward just wasn't exciting enough to talk about for more than a quarter of an hour or so.

* * *

The library was as musty as the last time I had been in there: about a year and a half previously. Triton was sitting with a fat book at a table near one of the windows.

"Hey Ward.", I greeted him easily as I sat down and lifted up the front of the gigantic book he had been pouring over, " 'Magical Beasts and their Ways'", I read off the cover, "found anything good in there?".

He smiled and shook his head, "There isn't a lot about unicorn's habitats but I'm still looking.".

"Well point me to the unicorn section and I'll help the search effort.", I said as I got up.

He pointed towards a shelf the back of the library, "Over there is where I found this.".

"Cool.", I turned and strolled over to the shelf he had pointed out.

* * *

We spent an hour and a half in the library doing research for our assignment. And another hour and a half the next day, and the day after that, and the following Monday and the whole of the next week...

As time went on I found that although he was still slightly boring, Triton was actually extremely witty and made me laugh and that the time always flew when we were together. It wasn't really until Chuck made a small, almost snide comment about it that I released just how much time Triton and I spent together in the library.

"Tonks? What are you doing here?", he said to me on afternoon in the common room. I gave him a confused look and waited for him to explain.

"Oh, well, you know it's a Thursday afternoon and I'm just surprised you're not with your boyfriend in the library as usual."

"Ha ha. Very funny Charles.", I said sarcastically, "But I don't have a boyfriend you idiot.".

Chuck put a fake shocked look on his face and said in a mock horrified voice, "What do you mean Nymphadora? What about the wonderful Triton Ward? Did you two break up? Did he break your heart? Do you want me to beat him up for you? And what about your beloved assignment!? How ever will you finish it?".

I gave him a punch and said determinedly, "Chuck, Ward is _not_ my boyfriend.".

He raised an eyebrow.

"What? He isn't! Where did you get that idea from?", I said in a surprised voice. Whatever Chuck thought, Triton and I were certainly _not_ going out.

"Because he's pretty much the only thing you think about. Besides the stupid assignment of course."

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about, you know.", I remained as stubborn as ever.

"Of _course_ you don't, Tonks.", Chuck's voice was heavy with sarcasm.

* * *

I was surprised at Chuck's crazy ideas but they certainly got me thinking about Triton in _that_ sort of way. I noticed things about him that I had never noticed: the way his hands looked really gentle and how soft they felt when they by mistake bumped mine; the way his grey eyes would light up when he smiled and how his laugh always seemed to bring a smile to my lips.

"Tonks," , Triton's voice floated over to me from the other side of the library, "come over here!". I smiled, just from the sound of his voice, and got up from the table that Triton and I always used.

"QUIET!", Madam Pince shrieked in a whispered voice at Triton. This made me giggle, which brought more furious whispers from Madam Pince to keep quiet.

As I got to where Triton was standing, I giggled again. He was grinning at me.

"Tonks, look at this,", he handed me a book which was open on a certain page and pointed to bottom of the page, "I found it, just what we were looking for.". I looked down at the paragraph he was pointing to.

"See, its all about how the unicorns' habitat can be saved.". He was grinning down at me again.

I grinned back and said, "This is great, thank you!".

An hour later, we were finished with the assignment. The last bit of information was added into our essay and with the biological drawings finished a week ago, everything was ready to be handed in.

With the good news that the assignment was finished, I decided I felt like having a bit more fun, almost as a sort of celebration.

"You know what I think we should do?", I said in a mischievous voice, grinning.

"What?", Triton's voice was curious but he was grinning just as much as I was.

I lowered my voice, to a whisper, just to raise the anticipation and to added secrecy, "We should _open a window_!".

He laughed loudly and grinning mischievously said in the same exaggerated whisper said, "Excellent! Wait! Do you know what would be even better? If we opened _all_ the windows! We'll start at opposite ends of the library and we'll be able to open all of them before she notices.".

Opening windows in the library was just about the worst thing you could do to annoy Madam Pince. The last time we had opened a window, without knowing it would upset the librarian so much, Madam Pince had screamed at us so badly we hadn't been able to control our laughter as we were thrown out of the library by her. She had banned us from the library for three days because of it and unfortunately for her, we had always intended to do it again just because it was so hilarious.

We packed our bags, we knew she would throw us out, and moved quietly and inconspicuously to opposite sides of the library. Triton gave a nod of his head and quickly and quietly we began to open the windows. The window frames were horribly rusted and stiff from disuse. I struggled with the second one and, looking over and catching Triton's eye, started to giggle. I tried to smother my laughter against my one hand while I opened the window with the other but as more windows were opened and I looked at Triton struggling and resisting the urge to laugh, I couldn't control myself and let out a loud laugh. Triton laughed as well and Madam Pince heard us and shrieked, "NO LAUGHING!" from her desk at the front of the library.

This brought more laughter. We knew she would come and shout at us and then see the windows at any moment, so we struggled with the rusty windows even more.

Madam Pince's chair scraped against the wooden floor and we knew she was coming. We laughed and hurried and soon we heard her scream, "WHAT ARE YOU _DOING_?! TONKS! WARD! STOP THAT!"

Two more windows.

One more. Triton yanked it open while I grabbed my bag.

Admits our laughs and giggles and Madam Pince's outraged shrieks, Triton grabbed his bag and we ran towards Madam Pince and were about to fly past her when she suddenly stuck out her hand and grabbed the edge of my robes, holding me back and not allowing me to run away.

"Tonks, you and Ward are going _detention_ for this!", she spat the words out as I struggled to get free of her surprisingly strong grip.

Triton grabbed hold of my hand though and pulled me free.

"RUN!", he yelled as we turned and sprinted out of the library, holding hands and still laughing our heads off. We knew Madam Pince would never chase us once we were out of the library but we didn't stop running. Up the stairs, past several groups of bewildered students and along corridors until we came to a deserted corner down a passage on the fifth floor.

It took a while before the laughing stopped and we stood, panting from the running and laughing, trying to catch our breath.

Slowly, our breathing quietened and we noticed that our hands were still linked. I looked up from our hands to find Triton staring at me, his face flushed from the excitement and his eyes glowing, just the way I liked. I grinned at him and was about to say something when he stepped closer. There was no space between us now and I could see he seemed to be making a quick decision in his head.

He leaned down all of a sudden and kissed me.

Soon he was pushing me up against the wall and I was wondering how this had all happened so fast.

I broke free from his hands, which were pushing up against me.

He got the message and stepped back. There was moment of silence while his eyes burned into mine.

"I'm not sorry.", his voice was low and blunt. I was slightly taken aback by his unapologetic tone, but somehow it excited me.

"Do you wanna go out with me?", again his voice was blunt.

I hesitated for a moment before saying, "Yeah, okay."

Without another word, he grinned and leaned back down to press his lips, gently this time, to mine. The kiss was more of a peck and he pulled back quickly.

* * *

Telling Chuck about Triton and me was more of a tricky thing. I didn't want to admit defeat since I had told him that there wasn't anything between us, because now there defiantly was.

So I instead told Phillips, who was surprised but happy about it, who then told Chuck who then spent the rest of the week teasing me about it.

"So you and that Triton guy?", Skye sat down next to me at the breakfast table.

"Sorry?", I pretended to not know what she was talking about.

"You and Triton Ward went out yesterday.".

I looked at her confusedly, "Um, yeah. How did you know?".

Triton and I had gone out for the first time the day before during the Hogsmede visit but I knew for a fact that nobody had seen us to anything except walk around and that didn't mean that we weren't dating.

"Oh, everybody's talking about it.".

"How does _everybody_ know about it?", I had never been the victim of 'couples gossip' and I didn't understand why I should start now.

"I don't know.", Skye was buttering herself a piece of toast as she spoke.

"Well who told you?"

"Daisy.", she said shrugging and then tried to turn the conversation to something more interesting; like gossip, "OK, so tell me everything! Have you guys kissed? Was he good?".

I rolled my eyes at her silly questions and got up to find Daisy.

"Daisy, who told you that I went out with Triton yesterday?", I cut to the chase as I dropped into the space next to her further down the house table.

She was sitting with Fran and Norah and St John, a Hufflepuff boy in our year who was good friends with Norah.

"I heard some other people talking about it, everyone seems to know. Why?"

"What other people?".

She seemed surprised at my question, "I don't who they were, some Ravenclaw girls.".

I sighed, "Okay, thanks Daise.". I got up and went to find Triton.

"Hey, wait, Tonks come back!", Daisy called but I ignored her.

"Triton?", Triton was sitting at the Ravenclaw table eating some cereal, I noticed he wasn't the most popular person, but that didn't bother me. He was sweet and I liked him, I didn't care if others thought he was boring.

I sat down next to him and he smiled when he saw me.

"Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to go for a walk?".

I smiled, "That sounds great. Can I ask you something?".

I grinned at my acceptance and replied, "Sure, shoot.".

"Did you by any chance tell anyone about us going out yesterday?".

He frowned and finished his last spoonful of cereal before answering, "No, why?".

"Oh, no it was just because everyone seems to know and they're all asking me about it.".

He gave a half- smile and said, "Are you embarrassed for going out with me?".

"No! Of course not! I just don't like to be gossiped about, you know?", I said quickly but the look he gave me made me feel terrible. I didn't want him to think I didn't want to go out with him. I knew people thought he was boring but I really didn't care.

"I'm sorry I asked okay? And I do really want to go out with you.".

He smiled and leaned in and kissed me right in front of everyone. I pulled back before the kiss could go very far but the damage was done and if people weren't talking about us before, they were now.

* * *

"...and I just can't believe Tonks would go out with _him_. She could have had any guy at Hogwarts and she chose Triton Ward!"

"I know! I mean, she's so cool _and_ she's a metamorphmagus and he's so boring!"

I gritted my teeth and stalked past the fourth year Gryffindors and tried not to pay attention to their stupid gossiping.

Did they really have nothing better to do, like homework or something?

The Great Hall was so packed with people standing around chatting that I had to practically squeeze through the crowd to get to the Hufflepuff table. In the middle of the crowd though I felt someone take my hand. I looked to my left and grinned as I saw Triton standing next to me.

"Hey babe.", his face was lit up with a grin and although I returned his smile and the kiss he placed on my lips, I was slightly taken aback: Triton had never called me babe before.

Around us a couple of girls giggled stupidly. I blushed and quickly pulled Triton through the now staring crowd to the Hufflepuff table where we sat down.

After a week, I was positive the gossip would cease but as the days went by, it became worse.

People would always seem to be around when Triton and I were together, always whispering about us.

Triton, although I tried not speak about it too much, didn't seem to be very bothered at all by the gossip. I must have been crazy to think it, but sometimes it seemed almost as if he enjoyed the gossip.

* * *

Little by little, I noticed a change in him. He became a lot more confident and gathered many more friends than he had before we started going out. But I never thought about saying anything to him about it. Neither to him nor anybody else.

The first time I really took notice of the change in him was about three weeks after we started going out.

I found him, after dinner and just before curfew, surrounded by a group of popular and good-looking seventh year boys. The fact that they were seventh years was only one of the reasons I was so surprised. The way that they were all clearly hung on his every word as he spoke animatedly surprised me even more. Triton had never been a particularly confident person and had never been one to be the centre of attention like that, it was more my sort of thing.

"Triton?", my voice was slightly wary as I approached.

Although I was pretty sure that he could hear me, he didn't respond until I was standing right outside the group and said loudly, "Triton?".

He looked my way and grinned when he saw who it was. The seventh years opened the circle to let me in. Triton walked over and draped his arm around me in what a way that one could only call possessively.

"Babe, what's up?". _Again with the 'babe'_, I thought, slightly irritably.

"Nothing, just wanted to say goodnight.", I was still wary of Triton's new friends, all of whom were watching intently.

"Well in that case,", Triton said as he leant down and kissed deeply, "Goodnight.", he finished as he pulled away.

I blushed at his over the top PDA. He didn't seem bothered at all, in fact he looked very pleased with himself as, while I walked away mentally scratching my head at his strange behaviour, one of the seventh years said in a loud appreciative and almost sleazy voice, "You got yourself a nice catch there, hey Ward.".

I walked away quickly, disgusted, before I could hear how Triton answered.

I was tempted to tell Chuck and Phillips about Triton and his weird behaviour but I decided against it, I didn't want to admit that I had chosen to go out with a guy I obviously didn't know very well.

* * *

His behaviour got worse and worse until the next Saturday when Phillips, Chuck and I went, with almost everyone else, down to Hogsmede. Triton told me that he wasn't going because he needed to study for some History of Magic test and although I was secretly glad that I wouldn't have to spend the day with him and his newly found arrogance, I managed to look reasonably downcast when he made another show of snogging me in front of everyone.

Hogsmede was Hogsmede and just as enjoyable as ever. After a good afternoon at The Three Broomsticks drinking Butterbeer and walking around doing a bit of shopping, Phillips and Chuck and I decided to call it a day and head back up to Hogwarts.

We walked through the village past several small alleyways along one of the roads happily talking about the upcoming quidditch match between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor.

We were laughing at one of Chuck's jokes when Phillips suddenly stopped walking and said, "Wait...uh, Tonks?". His voice was uncomfortable and I asked, "Yeah?", in a confused voice along with a quizzical look.

When he didn't answer immediately, I demanded, "What is it Phillips?". He just shook his head speechlessly and pointed down an alleyway next to which we had stopped.

Chuck's and my eyes followed his finger to see what he was pointing at.

Confusion and surprise found me walking down the alley ignoring Chuck's and Phillips' warnings to not go. Once it was confirmed that it was him, I felt anger bubble up from inside and when I finally found my voice, it was furious.

"Triton what the bloody hell is this?".

Triton didn't respond and neither did the girl who was pressed up against the wall with his hand up her shirt, sloppily snogging my boyfriend.

A rough pull at his shoulder and a yell, "Triton!" got Triton's attention. He clumsily turned and took a while to recognise me with his unfocused eyes. When he finally did though, he gave a loud "Tonks, babe!" and stumbled toward me for a kiss. I shoved him away and demanded, "Are you going to tell me what's going on here?".

The strong smell of alcohol was as obvious as anything and I knew I wasn't going to get a coherent answer from him.

"What? This..?", he gave a vague gesture to the girl leaning drunkenly against the wall, "Ag...nothing...its nothing. You know... bit of fu-", I didn't let him finish.

Instead he got a hard punch which sent him reeling backwards. When he managed to regain his balance and stand up, sort of, straight; his nose was bleeding.

"Shit! What was that for...?", his voice was angry but it was clear he still didn't have a clue what I was talking about.

"You _son of a bitch_."

"Hey... not nice..", he pouted stumbling toward me again, "I don't underst-".

Again I cut him off.

"It's over. _Obviously_,", I pointed to the girl before turning to leave.

He looked questioningly at the girl and then back at me, "What...? Why?... Babe...wait.".

At that _stupid_ name again, I turned back to him and instead of my voice being loud and shouting with anger, it was low and dangerous but filled with just as much rage, "_And do not call me babe_.".

I stalked back to where Chuck and Phillips were standing silently and awkwardly.

"Tonks-", Chuck began but stopped when he saw the cold fury on my face as I stalked past them and carried on walking back to Hogwarts. When they caught up with me, they were silent, both feeling uncomfortable and obviously not knowing what to say to me. I was silent during the walk as well and when we arrived back at the castle, I went straight to bed before either of them could say anything. I missed dinner, not wanting to face any questions or kindess or anything.

* * *

By the next morning, I was so hungry I couldn't help but go to breakfast. I sat silently eating as quickly as I could. Triton was sitting at the Ravenclaw table with a huge group of people sitting around him listening intently to what he was saying. I didn't know what he was talking about but obviously it wasn't too nice because every now and then one of them would shoot a hateful glance across at me.

My curiosity to know what they were talking about was quickly satisfied by none other than Heather.

"Nymphadora, why did you dump poor Triton like that?", she sat down opposite me, next to her cousin and gave me a biting look.

Chuck spoke before I could, "_Poor_ Triton?", he voiced the question that I was confused about.

"Yeah, you know he's really hurt.", she looked like she felt sorry for him.

I was furious, trust Heather to take his side. "After what he did to _me?_".

"He did nothing to you!", her voice was surprised.

I could not answer, what was Heather talking about!? He had _cheated_ on me and she was defending him?

Phillips spoke up in a hard voice, "What's he been telling people Heather?".

Still, she looked surprised. She glanced around at the three of us with confused expressions.

"The truth, of course. What else?".

"And what is that 'truth' of his?", Chuck said adding sarcasm.

I stood up all of a sudden, I wanted to hear the truth straight from the horse's mouth.

Some voice in my head told me not to make a scene in public but my anger ignored the reasonable voice and urged me on to the Ravenclaw table where '_poor' _Triton sat amongst his friends.

"So Triton, I'm guessing you haven't told anyone why I _really_ broke up with you?", my voice was loud and many of the people looked at me and then at Triton to see what he would say.

Instead, some Ravenclaw girl stood up and answered for him in an impassioned voice, "You broke up with him because you were bored and cruel and _bitchy_!". She spat the last word at me with such venom that I almost flinched.

The faces of most of the people in the Great Hall reflected the look of shock that was on my own. Everyone and everything was silent as the waited for me to respond.

When I found that I couldn't, I decided just to walk away while I could. My footsteps echoed as I tried my hardest not to run but instead walk as calmly as possible while also trying to keep in the tears.

I got to the common room and though it was deserted, I didn't allow the tears to come until I was curled up on my bed. Crying was not one of those things that I did very often, so I when did cry, those who knew me knew that I was truly upset. Ten minutes later, Chuck and Phillips appeared in the doorway and I simply buried my face into my pillow when they asked gently if they could come in.

They sat on either sides of my bed and waited for me to cry myself out.

"Fuck, I'm stupid.", my voice came out very small and slightly muffled by my pillow. I dried my eyes with the edge of the robes but remained curled up.

"You are not stupid Tonks. He's a bastard and bastards are just really good at deceiving people.", Phillips said softly.

"I should have told you guys. I should have told you about how he became all popular and weird and was calling me 'babe' and bragging about us dating. He used me the whole time. Now he's got all these friends to protect him and he even turned the tables on me with the whole cheating thing.". Chuck and Phillips guessed I wasn't finished.

"He's a bastard. A really smart bastard. And I was just stupid.".

"But you know the truth and I'm pretty sure he still remembers the truth and besides, you've still got all the Hufflepuffs behind you.", Chuck patted a nearby ankle of mine.

Again there was silence for a few moments before I said, "I don't even know that girl. The girl who yelled at me just now in the Great Hall. How can she be so angry at me if I don't even know her?".

* * *

It took a long time for people from other houses to start liking me again. When Triton had turned against me, he took a lot of people with him and he must have been more popular and influential than I thought because people didn't forget about the whole thing for a long time.

One of the only things that kept me from screaming from anger sometimes was the fact that Triton knew deep down that he was the one who had hurt me, that he was the bad guy. No matter how many people he had thinking I was the one who had hurt him, he knew just fine that I was perfectly innocent. And I think, or hope, that he was always a little bit scared of me afterwards, because he knew that I knew that he knew the real truth.

* * *

A/N: HEEEE! Wasn't that fun? I'll have the next chapter up on Wednesday. Thanks for reading!-Cloey:)


	10. Chapter 10

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything related to Harry Potter by J.K Rowling.**

Author's Note: Hi everyone! Hope you have all had a good week :D This is the next chapter and it isn't very long so I'm sorry. It's a bit of a random chapter but the next one will be good! Thank you for the follows and reviews! Enjoy! :D

* * *

Chapter 16

The next morning, just as Chuck had predicted, nobody was talking about Triton and Sophie Sutherland anymore. It seemed they were old news and everyone was back to talking about the Quidditch.

All the team members were given pats on the back, cheers and praise from pretty much everyone in the school except the Syltherins who were glowering fiercely at every Hufflepuff they passed.

Studying for the upcoming NEWTs began to increase and we seventh years were all being forced to stay indoors and work.

For me, my NEWT marks were everything. My dream of being an Auror depended almost solely on those marks as the Auror Office looked pretty much only at how many NEWTs you got. If I didn't do exceptionally well on these NEWTs I wouldn't get into Auror training and although I knew I wasn't being sensible about it, I didn't really have a plan B.

Everything else was forgotten, even quidditch I must admit, as I practised spells and charms, perfected the art of writing a potions essay in a matter of hours, was able to transfigure just about anything I could think of and was able to recite almost my entire Care of Magical Creatures textbook.

Phillips and Chuck were a little more concerned about Hufflepuff's chances of winning the House and Quidditch Cups.

They both heartily agreed that they were so lucky that they had already played their last match and didn't have to worry about practising. They wouldn't have had much time to fit in both studying _and _quidditch.

When the last match of the season, between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, came around everyone was nervous. This game would determine the winner of the Quidditch Cup.

Although on any other day we Hufflepuffs would have supported Gryffindor over Ravenclaw in a heartbeat, on this occasion we really needed Ravenclaw to win. If Gryffindor did not score any points but caught the snitch and earned the one hundred and fifty points then Hufflepuff would be ahead of Gryffindor by less than seventy points.

The perfect situation would be where no one scored any points and Ravenclaw managed to get the snitch. Then Hufflepuff would win the Cup.

Of course, it being _just_ our luck, the brilliant Gryffindor team with Charlie Weasley as their determined captain, won the tension-filled match.

But, it seemed fate smiled on us because just as Phillips furiously began to count the points to see whether we had managed to win the cup, Dumbledore's loud voice interrupted the Gryffindor's loud celebrating to announce that Hufflepuff had won the Quidditch Cup.

The screams and cheers from the Hufflepuff side of the stands erupted and didn't stop. Not while the team rushed down to the field where Dumbledore stood with the cup, certainly not when a sobbing Phillips raised the cup triumphantly into the air and passed it around, not while the Hufflepuffs made their way up to the castle and into the common room which was quickly stocked with the necessities for a night-long party, and not even when Sprout came down to the common room at two AM to tell us that we really did have to go to sleep.

Instead we laughed, cheered even more, turned up the blaring music and ignored her futile attempts to persuade, order and beg us to go to our beds.

The next morning most of the Hufflepuffs missed breakfast and only turned up for lunch. Some of us older students were nursing small hangovers thanks to the innocently naïve house elves in the kitchen who had been more than willing to give a metamorphmasised Snape-me some firewhiskey which I in turn passed around to the sixth and seventh years (of course making sure that none of the younger years got any).

The celebrations continued for a least another week and a half, especially among the Chuck, Phillips and I who had been dreaming of this time since our last defeat the previous year.

The only thing that brought us all back down to earth was the awful truth that exams were little less than two weeks away and there was still so much to learn, revise, practise, memorise and make sure you retained the information just long enough to get the mark you wanted (or my case _needed!_).

* * *

A/N: We're finally getting somewhere so I hope you'll keeping reading!- CvZ


	11. Chapter 11

**DISCLAIMER:**** I do not own anything related to Harry Potter by J.K Rowling.**

A/N: Hey everyone:) I know it's not Wednesday yet but I'm on holiday so I'm switching things up a bit... This chapter is very short(again, I'm really sorry) but things are going to be moving a lot faster now (and I'm running out of chapters since I haven't finished this story). Hope you enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 17

_Oh shit. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. Okay...breathe. Come on, you can do this. You can wipe the floor with this NEWT. You know the stuff, relax. _

The little voice in my head was so much more confident about this than me.

I took a steadying breath.

"You may turn over your exams and begin. You have three hours, good luck.", Professor McGonagall's voice echoed through the Great Hall right to where I was sitting near the back behind Francesca and in front of (annoyingly enough) Triton.

I turned the paper over. This was it, my last exam at Hogwarts. With all the others already finished and done, after this three hour long Transfig paper I would be free and my future career as an Auror would be either made or broken.

* * *

I almost literally ran out the Great Hall after McGonagall had taken in our papers and announced that we were free to leave.

"How did you find that?", Francesca turned to me immediately. I took a calming breath and smiled, relieved it was finally over.

"It was fine. Good actually. You?".

"Okay I guess, the last question confused me completely though."

"Yeah, I know! I spent ages on it!".

We chatted until we got out of the Great Hall where Fran went off to find Norah and I stopped to wait for Chuck and Phillips.

"So, it's over then.", Chuck was beaming as he and Phillips approached.

"Yep, now all we can do is wait for the results and pray that they're good.".

We made our way out of the entrance hall and into the grounds where we sat down on the grass, stretching and loving the warm sunshine on our faces.

The last week and a half of school was a complete waste of time for the seventh years. We weren't getting our results back until the holidays and since our school careers were over, the teachers didn't need to teach us anything. A few of our lessons were filled with some soppy end-of year stuff but the last few days we were given off free and we spent them outside in the sun, enjoying the last few moments we had.

On the last day, I found I wasn't even too sad to be going. Sure it was a bit depressing but I didn't shed any tears like the other girls in my dorm who sat and balled their eyes out for hours.

Chuck, Phillips and I double checked our dorms and the common room for anything that we might have forgotten to pack, put our trunks ready by our beds and went for one last stroll around the castle to say goodbye to all the little nooks and crannies that were filled with seven years' worth of memories. Along our way we bumped into a few teachers: Flitwick wished us the best of luck for our futures and McGonagall even gave me hug (to which I stiffened before awkwardly patting her back).

Before we left, standing in the entrance hall with our trunks, Dumbledore had a word with all the seventh years and told us all that he was proud of us and that he knew that we would go far and more mushy clichéd stuff.

Professor Sprout gave each Hufflepuff seventh year a card and a hug and although Chuck laughed about how silly it was afterwards, I was touched by it.

Once all the goodbyes to the castle and the teachers were said and done, we loaded our trunks and ourselves into the carriages and slowly made our way down to Hogsmede and the train waiting to take us home one last time.

Though I was desperate to, I kept myself from looking back at the castle as we rode in the carriages right until the last moment, when I quickly turned and said a silent, final goodbye to the magnificent castle, peacefully standing as it always had on the hill with the morning sunlight crowing it in light. I remembered the first time I had seen the castle, at night from the lake as we rowed across with Hagrid. I laughed silently at how I had thought how imposing and scary it had seemed back then.

And then it was gone and turning back to the others and blinking back a couple of tears, I said aloud, "I guess we're really never coming back, and we're really never going to see Hogwarts again.".

A hush of solemn silence fell in the carriage before Chuck said, "Unless I've failed all my NEWTs and I have to come back here to be Gamekeeper with Hagrid.".

Another pause. And then we burst into laughter and the sentimental mood vanished from my mind: sure, I might never see Hogwarts again and sure, this time of my life had come to an end but I had had a good time while it had lasted and now I had my whole life ahead of me, hopefully as an Auror.

* * *

A/N: Aww, no more Hogwarts! Now on to the future! See you soon :D- Cloey


	12. Chapter 12

**DISCLAIMER:**** I do not own anything related to Harry Potter by J.K Rowling.**

Author's Note: Hello readers! So here's the next chapter very early :D I was sitting around doing nothing so I decided that I might as well post this even though it's Thursday and I wasn't planning on posting anything until Sunday:) Tonks finally gets her NEWT results and applies for Auror training. I just want to add with regards to the formatting for the report that I tried to follow the format of Harry's report in the book but ff might have thrown a bit of a hissy fit and messed it all up so i'm sorry if it's looks funny. Also, there is a lot of detail about applying to Auror training and stuff like that that I don't know and I couldn't find much info about it when I was doing research for the story so I made a lot of it up. Also, thank you to Remusdora for the kind words and support :) Anyway, on to the chapter! Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 18

When my NEWT results finally showed up I was too nervous to open it and instead kept it in a drawer in my desk for two days before my mother had had enough and marched into my room and ripped open the piece of paper herself, glanced over it and handed it to me. I tried to glean some information on my results from my mother's expression but she wasn't giving anything away so I was forced to cautiously move my eyes down to the paper.

_NASTILY EXHAUSTING WIZARDING TEST RESULTS_

_Pass Grades: Outstanding (O) _

_Exceeds Expectations (E)_

_Acceptable (A) _

_Fail Grades: Poor (P)_

_ Dreadful (D)_

_ Troll (T)_

_NYMPHADORA TONKS HAS ACHEVED:_

_Care of Magical Creatures: __O_

_Charms: __O_

_Defence Against the Dark Arts: __O_

_Potions: __E_

_Transfiguration: __O_

_Herbology:__O_

I looked up at my mum who was grinning proudly at me.

"Well done Dora, these are amazing results. I'm so proud of you!", she pulled me into a fierce hug.

I couldn't believe it! I had done it! I wanted to cry with relief and happiness but all I could do was grin and laugh and laugh and laugh.

My dad insisted that we all go out to celebrate and went out for dinner at a fancy restaurant in Diagon Alley where my mum was so happy that she didn't even tell me to change my hair when she saw it was bright purple and spiky and my beaming-with-pride father announced loudly to the waiter while ordering, "And my daughter-who-just-got-six-NEWTs would like the roast chicken with potatoes.".

The next day my mother sat with me in my room and helped me to neatly fill in the three page Auror training application form. Apart from the obvious spaces to fill your name, age and wand type, there were also a couple of more strange questions which I had to think about before filling in the block, one example was "What is your worst nightmare?".

I almost wrote "Not being accepted for Auror training.", but my mum put her foot down and said that there was absolutely no way that she was going to allow her daughter to look _that_ desperate. She said that I should write down, "Disappointing the ones I love." But I refused that one because I thought it sounded too soppy and generic. And if there was one thing that I wouldn't allow myself to be, it was generic.

Eventually I ended up writing, "Letting people down when I know that I didn't try hard enough.".

Once completed and double checked by my mum and dad, I sent the form; along with a copy of my NEWT results; off to the Ministry of Magic by owl post.

All I had left to do was wait but I've never been patient and especially not during those seemingly endless weeks of waiting for a reply.

* * *

"Why can't they just hurry up though?", I complained to Chuck and Phillips over lunch at a muggle pizza restaurant that Chuck had said that was really good and that we must try.

"You need to learn patience, Tonks. Isn't that one of the skills you need as an Auror anyway?", Chuck took a slice of his pizza.

"Well if I ever become an Auror, at least I can kick some dark wizard arse in between being patient.".

Phillips chuckled, "You only submitted the form two weeks ago-".

"Two weeks and _three_ _days_! You know how much I hate waiting around doing nothing.", I pointed out.

Phillips rolled his eyes at this, "Whatever, the point is that they probably get thousands of applications and they have to go through them all. They probably just haven't gotten to yours yet.".

I paused to think over his words when a new fear hit me: "You don't think it could have gotten lost do you? I mean, maybe Henry couldn't find the Ministry or something!", Henry had been my parent's owl for a while and I was convinced that he might be too old to make complicated trips to places like the ministry anymore.

"Will you give it a rest? Everything's gonna be _fine_! At least you and Phillips know what you're doing with the rest of your lives.", Chuck said with a sigh.

"You still haven't decided?", I replied, glad of a distraction from my worries.

"Nope. I'm getting seriously desperate.", Chuck fiddled with the piece of pizza in his hands instead of eating it straight away.

"You just need to go and experience the world. Maybe that idea to go to America isn't such a bad idea.", Phillips said helpfully.

"Yeah, looks like the best option I have.".

Chuck had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. His cousin Jimmy lived in America, working for the American division of Gringotts. He had offered to give Chuck his spare room if he ever thought about going over to America after he finished school. Now with not many other options, it seemed Chuck would accept and see what would happen.

"At least you'll be able to meet hot American girls… unlike like me, sitting with my nose in the law books.", Phillips gave a sigh and took a large bite of pizza. He had decided to study wizarding law at the ministry in the headquarters of the International Magical Office of Law where he had been offered an internship.

"Yeah, but we all know you'll enjoy it so much you won't even notice the lack of girls.", I playfully teased him.

I went home that evening with a smile on my face, it was defiantly going to be weird not seeing all of my friends everyday but I knew Chuck, Phillips and I would always keep in contact, especially since Phillips would be at the ministry just like me.

* * *

In the end, I only had a week more to wait for a reply from the Auror office.

The night before had been a Weird Sister's concert in Wimberley and me, Fran, Daisy, Chuck and a few others had gone out for drinks before. By the time I had gotten home after the concert at two in the morning, I was so tired (and a bit tipsy) that I barely even made it up the stairs and into my bed before I fell asleep. The next morning I had slept in late and my parents, thinking they were being kind, let me sleep and didn't think that an official looking letter addressed to me from the Auror office was worth waking me up for.

At half past ten when I finally woke up and groggily made my way downstairs and into the kitchen in search of some coffee, my mum and dad were both out. The letter lying on the kitchen table didn't catch my attention until I had boiled the water with my wand and set a steaming mug of coffee down on the table. Just as I was on my way out of the kitchen, I caught the words _Auror Office_ on the envelope and with a yelp of anxiety and surprise, dropped my coffee onto the floor where the mug shattered and sent the hot liquid flying in all directions, especially up at me.

With a quick wave of my wand, I managed to clean up the coffee and fix the mug, but the thought of making another cup of coffee was completely pushed out of my mind as I approached the kitchen table with caution.

Looking around and debating whether I should wait to open it with my parents, I decided almost immediately against it: if I didn't get in I did _not_ want my parents to see me cry about it.

I sat down slowly on a chair, picked up the letter slowly and turning it over carefully in my hand, took a breath before-

_EEEK! I can't do this!_ , I wailed in my head.

_Come on Nymphadora, this letter could tell you that you have a chance of becoming an Auror and now you're too scared to even open the letter? _, a more sensible, stern voice told the other scared one.

I took another breath.

_Okay, you're right. Just do it. _

I didn't give myself time to hesitate again. I ripped open the letter, pulled out the piece of parchment inside and glanced down, skimming to find the words I was so desperate to find.

And finally, relief!

"Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that you are one of a select few that have been considered for Auror training.".

The relief flooded over me with such force that I sagged down into the chair.

And a minute later I was giggling, and then laughing and then dancing. Around my kitchen table, into the living room, through the hallway up the stairs and even into the bathroom.

All the time singing for joy, "I got in! I got iiiiiiin! I'm gonna be an AUROR! I'm gonna be the most awesome-bad-ass-incredible-famous auror EVER!".

I sent Henry with a letter to just about everybody I could think of to tell them that I had been invited for the interview and testing. And when my parents finally came home, I was just about falling on the floor laughing as I told them my good news.

* * *

A/N: Next chapter: her interview! Keep reading to find out what happens :D -Cloey


	13. Chapter 13

**DISCLAIMER:**** I do not own anything related to Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling.**

* * *

Chapter 19

The date that I was to show up at the ministry for the first interview was the twelfth of August.

Even though my mum told me to hurry up about a million times, I still somehow managed to get to the Auror offices with only a minute to spare.

With my short strawberry blonde bob ( my mum had forced me to change it from the bright blue colour I had intended it to be) slightly messy looking and my cheeks flushed from the running I had to do to get to the right office on time, I hoped that I hadn't blown the interviewers' first impression of me.

"Please take a seat Miss Tonks.", the man who had spoken was one of three interviewers. He had a rich, deep voice, one that immediately made me feel much more secure. His face was calm and reassuring.

I walked over to the seat that they had placed in front of a long table behind which they sat.

The man who spoke next had bushy eyebrows, tawny hair and many scars. His voice was a lot more gruff.

"My name is Rufus Scrimgeour and I am the Head of the Auror Office. This is Kingsley Shacklebolt,", he pointed to the man who had told me to take a seat, "and this is John Dawlish.", he pointed to the third man who had not spoken yet.

"Before you are accepted, _if_ you are accepted, you are going to be subjected to a few tests. Your results of these tests will greatly influence our decision on whether or not to allow you to begin Auror training. Any questions before we begin?".

"No sir.". I knew that I had to ace these tests, otherwise I could kiss my dream of being an Auror goodbye.

"Right, let's start with your application shall we?".

I wasn't sure whether this was a rhetorical question or not so I settled for a nice neutral nod of my head and a smile.

He looked down at the parchment on the table in front of him.

"I understand that you obtained six NEWTs. Correct?". I thought this seemed defiantly like a rhetorical question, as the list of my results was right in front of him but he looked at expectantly so I answered, "Yes.".

"And you achieved 'Outstanding' in all of them except for Potions, in which you achieved 'Exceeds Expectations'?". Another silly question.

"Yes sir.".

"A pity about that the Potions mark, it would have been quite something to say that you have achieved 'Outstanding' in all of your NEWTs.".

Was he hinting at something? My heart raced, was this leading up to me not being accepted for Auror training?!

My voice was calm, though inside I was all panicky, "Yes, but I have still met the requirements for Auror training with the five 'Outstanding's that I did achieve.".

He looked up, seemingly surprised that I had jumped to the conclusion that he thought my marks weren't adequate, but somehow I knew that I that was _exactly_ what he had been thinking.

"Oh, I never said any differently Miss Tonks. Yes you're marks are sufficient.".

I smiled but didn't say anything. Maybe (though unlikely) I was getting the wrong impression, but he seemed very harsh. My marks were 'sufficient'? Everybody else thought they were bloody brilliant.

"I'm glad. I worked hard to get them.", my voice was perhaps slightly colder than it should have been.

His eyes pierced mine, he seemed to be trying to read my thoughts. I kept my face completely expressionless and inwardly grinned at the thought of the Head of the Auror Office trying to 'read' me and failing.

It was the man, Dawlish who broke the awkward silence, "You've stated here on your application that you are a metamorphmagus.".

"Yes, sir I am metamorphmagus.".

_Finally! This'll win them over, no problem!_ I thought gleefully. My metamorphmatic abilities were one of my strong points and I knew that if all else failed, Scrimgeour and the others would at least consider me because of them.

"That's incredibly rare. I have never met a metamorphmagus.", Dawlish's face and voice expressed wonder and I inwardly smiled smugly.

"I'm the only metamorphmagus in Britain.".

"Indeed?", he asked interested.

"Well, I'd have to double check with the Ministry's records, but I think so.".

"Would you mind if we saw your ability?", Shacklebolt inquired.

I smiled and answered, "Oh, of course.".

I thought for a moment about what to change that would really impress them.

I squeezed my eyes shut but quickly opened them, took out my wand and pointed it towards my clothes, "Before I forget. I can only change my physical appearance, not the clothes I'm wearing.", I informed them before I transfigured the blue wizard's robes I was wearing to men's black ones that were too big for me. They gave me quizzical looks as I squeezed my eyes shut for a second time and with a second of focus, the three Aurors gasped- the inevitable sign that told me my appearance had been successfully altered to impress and surprise my audience.

I opened my eyes and found the surprise at finding the Minster for Magic, Cornelius Fudge sitting where a second before Nymphadora Tonks had, showing clearly on all three of their faces, even Scrimgeour.

"Spectacular! That is a very useful skill.", Shacklebolt praised me.

Scrimgeour wiped the surprise off his face and regarded me with ever expressionless eyes once more.

"Yes, impressive. Very impressive.", was all he said.

After a moment of silence, after I changed back to myself, Kingsley Shacklebolt cleared his throat and spoke again, "Why did you apply for Auror training Miss Tonks?".

"Because I want to be an Auror.", I couldn't help being slightly cheeky.

Rufus Scrimgeour sighed exasperatedly and spoke in an annoyed voice before Shacklebolt could answer back, "Miss Tonks, now is really no time for silliness. Answer the question.".

I only _just_ managed not to scowl heavily at him. That wouldn't have helped me in any way! Instead I reined my temper in and turned my attention back to Shacklebolt and answered suddenly after a moment's pause while I thought of a way of putting my will into words, "Have you ever heard of Bellatrix Lestrange?-"

"Of course we have, I personally helped to lock her up in Azkaban!", Scrimgeour interjected defensively as if my question offended him, but I carried on, ignoring his comment.

"Tortured the Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom into permanent insanity. Or Regulus Black? He joined He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's group of death eaters when he was _sixteen_ and his parents were _so_ proud of him-"

"Miss Tonks, I would like to know why you are telling us things that we already know.".

Again, I ignored him, "And I'm sure you've heard of his brother Sirius Black? Betrayed his best friend, sent He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named straight to the Potter's. I don't need to tell you how that ended.". I paused now, waiting to see if he would say anything more. He didn't, instead he waited for me to finish my story.

"My mother was a Black. Bellatrix is my aunt and Sirius and Regulus were my mother's cousins and I'd have been born into that family and secretly supporting He-Must-Not-Be-Named if my mother hadn't been brave enough to marry a muggle-born, Ted Tonks.", I took a deep breath and assessed Dawlish, Shacklebolt and Scrimgeour's silent and almost unreadable faces.

"Call it a conscience thing, but I can't let my relatives carry on ruining innocent people's lives with murder and torture and cruelness. That's why I want to be an Auror. That's why I _need_ to be an Auror. I need to make up for what my family and so many others have done by protecting those who need protecting. Because it doesn't matter how many times my mum tells me otherwise, my blood _is_ still Black.".

It felt good to get my feelings off my chest. For so long, I had been harbouring these thoughts about how lucky I was that my mum hadn't married into some pure-blood-He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named loving family.

I felt so guilty when I found out just how terrible some of the Blacks and other relations had been during the Wizarding War. Becoming an Auror was sort of my way of repenting for my family's sins and making damn sure that I stopped any other relatives from causing more harm. And, although I would _never _admit it to _anyone_, I also kind of wanted to make sure that I was never tempted to take the Black-path and join the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named supporters.

Shackleblot was the first to answer.

"Thank you, this obviously means a lot to you.".

I smiled graciously at him, while Scrimgeour tried to contain his disapproving look and Dawlish maintained his poker face.

"I think that we have heard all we needed. Please report here tomorrow at the same time for your practical test.".

I stood at Shacklebolt's cue, "Thank you."

"Good day Miss Tonks.".

With that I hurried out of the office, my mind filled with contemplation at whether or not I had messed up my chance. I think I handled it well enough but I was positive that Scrimgeour didn't like me very much and his opinion on the matter was most important.

* * *

A/N: Hope you're enjoying the story:D Next chapter is her test so keep reading! -Cloey:)


	14. Chapter 14

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything related to Harry Potter by J.K Rowling.**

Author's Note: Hey everyone, how are you all? Good, I hope. Thank you so much for reading, favouriting(favourite-ing?), following and of course the lovely reviews you've left! I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter. This is her test and when i wrote it I wanted to make it like have four different parts (water, fire, earth and air) but it didn't really turn out how I wanted because I wasn't too sure how difficult to make the challenges... Anyway, i did my best so... ENJOY!

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Chapter 19

The next day when I returned, I managed to turn up a little bit earlier so I didn't have the rush to find the office like I had had to do the first time.

This time I had time to actually take the impressiveness of the atrium with the gigantic golden statues in the fountain. I took a good look at all the wizards and witches and tried my best to imagine what it would be like to work here and walk into the lifts and go to the second floor like it was a such a regular occurrence that I wouldn't even notice the woman's voice annoyingly announcing every floor the lift stopped at.

I found the office a lot quicker the second time but when I knocked on the door, there was no answer. I checked my watch again. Nope, I was precisely on time, so why was there no answer?

I knocked again. Nothing. Maybe I just couldn't hear them? _Ok, well I'm here at the right time and this is defiantly the right place._ I opened the door, _might as well. _

For a moment I thought I had the wrong place, the room was so pitch black that I thought I had vanished into nothingness. I looked behind me though and could see the light from the open door. None of the light was entering the room. Magic, it was a sure sign that magic was happening to make the room so black, not that there just weren't any lights on.

"Lumos.", I whispered and tried to see if I could penetrate the darkness.

Out of nowhere a streak of red flew towards me but luckily I managed to shout, "Protego!", just in time to protect myself from the stunning spell. Even though I couldn't see a thing, I sent a stunning spell back in the direction it had come from.

A rewarding but intriguing sound of breaking glass met my ears. And then a huge shock when suddenly there seemed to be water rushing around on the floor and I could feel it sloshing around my ankles. More and more water rushed out of wherever and the water level in the room began to rise.

"Shit!", I swore loudly as I turned to the door and found that where there had been an open one only moments before, there was none now.

_This must be my practical. Couldn't they have chosen something perhaps a bit easier?_ I complained.

_Stop whining! If you're gonna be an Auror, you have to be able to handle anything. Now stop panicking and start thinking of a way to stop this water from drowning you!_ I forced myself to assess the situation and think logically of how to get out of here.

"Lumos Maxima.", I said and flung a large ball of light upwards to see if I could, excuse the pun, shed some light on the situation. When I looked around me, the room lit up a little better, I found that the room seemed to have been enlarged because I could not see the wall at all. Instead the water, which was now nearing mid-thigh height, and darkness seemed to stretch away so far that I couldn't see the walls of the office at all.

_An enlargement charm_, I thought.

_Ok, then I'm guessing I'm not going to find the door any time soon._

I looked around to see if I could perhaps find the source of the rushing water that was now at the level of my hips. I tried to wade through the water in the vague direction that I had sent the stunning spell in. I figured maybe if I could find what I had hit, I might find the source of the water.

Progress was slow and soon the water was too high for me to wade through and I was forced to start swimming. I hadn't swum very far before I realised that my swimming wasn't going to work out too well while I was being dragged down by the weight of my trousers, shirt and smart-slash-professional-looking jacket. Before thinking it through, I removed first my jacket, then my jeans and finally my shirt. It wasn't until I was left holding the three items that I realised that I really didn't want to just let them float down to Merlin knew where. Call me a silly girl but those were my favourite jeans and the jacket had cost a lot, way more than deserved to be left in some dark(and possibly) dirty water. I shuddered to think of what the water was doing to the clothes. Putting the clothes in one hand and my wand in the other, I used my excellent transfiguration skills to quickly transform the three items into the easiest thing I could think of wearing, rings. Satisfied with the transfiguration, I slipped the rings on and swam on much easier, albeit in my underwear with my boots still on my feet, though they didn't hinder me too much.

Lucky for me, I didn't mind swimming too much and the dark, creepy water didn't freak me out much either.

What did freak me out was the weird slimy thing that wrapped around my leg and started to pull me down under the water. With a yelp of surprise, disgust and distress; I kicked violently, cast my eyes down to see what the thing was and, in the light of the giant light-ball, saw some strange green slimy rope-like plant slide up out of the water and try to wrap around my neck.

With some quick thinking on my part, I flung an offensive spell towards it, before hurriedly swimming away.

It wouldn't go away that easily though and soon I felt it slithering around my waist. Jerking out of its reach didn't work too well and it succeeded in pulling me under into the darkness.

Panicking, I fired the first spell I could think of at the strange plant and only when that didn't force it to release me did I try to think of a more suitable spell.

First though, I had the sense to cast a fast Bubble-head charm and the relief that I could breathe was almost enough to distract me from the fact that I was being dragged roughly down towards the bottom of the water.

Next I tried, unsuccessfully, to break free of the strong grip. All I managed was for the grip to be tightened.

Okay, this was getting serious. I was being pulled further and further down into the darkness.

What spell did I know that could get this thing away from me? My mind raced through various options and crossed out all of them as they became increasingly silly.

As I was dragged down further, the light from the ball floating above the water faded gradually and I was left in complete darkness.

Then, a stray but wonderful thought crossed my mind and I wanted to hit myself for being so stupid as to not think of it before: use the fire spell, _incendio_.

It took a second and third attempt to get the non-verbal spell to work. But at the last second, just as if the plant knew what I was about to do, it quickly jerked out of the way of my pointed wand.

_Damn it!_ I cursed silently as the jet of fire went flying off into the dark water, soon fizzling out.

Another attempt was dodged by the plant. And another. And another!

_Stay still!_ I ranted in my head.

When the next shot missed as well, I was ready to scream with frustration. My short temper was running out faster as the plant pulled me roughly downwards.

My temper seemed to affect the spell and the next attempt shot past a slimy rope, burning much more fiercely than the other ones had. It even carried on flying and didn't burn out like the others, despite the water.

I tried to calm my temper and practice some patience as well as super concentration for my next try when a fiery red wall erupted to my left.

My head whipped round and my eyes widened as I saw the fire I had just sent flying through the water, spread rapidly along what seemed to be a wall.

The plant noticed the wall of fire as well and pulled me down faster. I tried to recast the spell but my concentration was completely lost.

Luckily, I was hit by some inspiration instead and started to swim towards the fire. If I could just pull the plant close enough to the fire that it got a little burned, it would flee. Hopefully after letting me go. The plant was strong though and resisted my pulling it towards the heat.

Nevertheless I struggled on, and making slow progress, could feel the heat radiating from the wall as I got closer. The plant felt the heat too though and we reached a stalemate for a while before I, with a spurt of energy, kicked through the water and before the plant could pull away, grabbed one of the ropes and pushed it against the flames.

Immediately it pulled away and I had to fight even harder to push another rope against the flames.

With an extra ounce of energy and perseverance, I thrust another, thicker rope against the fire. As the plant squirmed to get away from the blazing heat, I untangled myself from the plant's ropes and swam up as fast as I could. I kept as close as I could to the wall of fire and swam fast upwards until I finally broke the surface. I removed the bubble-head charm from my head and looked around. To my left, the wall of fire rose upwards and carried on going sideways as far as I could see. I made sure to keep as close to the fire as possible just in case the plant decided to come after me. I needed to find my way out of here.

I scanned around looking for any escape.

I didn't find any and so I began to swim. I was as tired as hell and didn't know how long I could keep going when, almost on cue, I saw a door.

In the wall of fire.

I tried to approach it but quickly turned my head away from the fire, as it was too much to bear.

_Shit._

I summed up my situation in one simple word.

I looked once more at the door. At least it seemed untouched by the flames. It was only the heat of the entire wall around it that I had to worry about.

"Agumenti!", I tried to put out some of the flames with water. Nothing.

_Okay...Just going to have to grit my teeth and go for it._ I thought grimly.

I followed my advice and with a set jaw and determined face, swam swiftly towards the door.

As the sweltering waves of heat hit me in the face like a ton of bricks, I almost turned away but instead gave a quick shove with my hand and threw myself through the, thankfully unlocked, door.

I almost fell asleep as I lay on the beautifully cool soil ground. I was a fairly strong swimmer but after having swum around and down and up and practically through fire, I had to lie still for at least 15 minutes before my breathing calmed down and I found strength to get to my feet. Before anything else, I took off the rings I was wearing and re-transfigured them back into my clothes, which I dried and put on.

Then for the first time, I looked around. This room was much lighter and looking up, I saw hundreds of candles floating in mid-air. It reminded me of Hogwarts. I sighed, I missed that place.

I looked behind me and instead of seeing what I expected, a wall of fire, all I saw was a lone door. Seemingly in the middle of the room, it stood alone and fire-less. I walked around the solitary door and looked past it, into the distance where I could nothing but candles and a soil ground all around.

I walked away from the door; I did _not_ want to go back to that water and fire.

Wondering what I was supposed to do and half expecting an evil plant with rope like tentacles to strangle me again, what did happen caught me by complete surprise.

One second I was walking along the soft soil and the next second I was falling downwards. The ground had literally opened up underneath me and as I fell with increasing speed, my wand: my one hope, fell from my grip. I was going to hit the ground, wherever it was, with a tremendous force if I didn't stop myself. But without my wand, I was helpless.

Halfway through my fall, I felt a strange sensation pass over me. It was an awful feeling that somehow made me feel extremely empty. I felt different, not myself. I added this odd sensation onto the very long list of things to worry about.

When suddenly, I slowed down, falling slower and slower until I was lying flat on my back, unhurt but stunned at what had happened so quickly.

Up I sat and looked around to get my bearings once again.

I was in a hole. It wasn't too small but when I looked up to see how far down I was, it was a bit scary. All I could see was a far off circle of light from the candles floating around at the top.

I found my wand lying unharmed next to me. I sighed with relief; if my wand had broken I would have been screwed big time.

My first reaction was to immediately cast a levitation spell and get myself out of the hole.

But nothing happened. I tried repeatedly. Stumped as to why it wasn't working, I tried another spell. That didn't work either. What was wrong? Why couldn't I work magic?

Then it hit me, that's what the strange sensation had been. Something that took away my ability to do magic.

Great, just great. How was I supposed to get out of here if I couldn't use magic?

_I bet this was Scrimgeour's idea._ I thought cynically, gazing up to the top of the hole.

I paced around a bit, trying to think of possible ways of getting out. After many failed ideas, I slumped on the ground and raged with frustration.

_How do they expect me to get out of here!? Use my magic fairy wings and fly out?_ , I ranted sarcastically in my head.

_Wait..._ my mind racing, I looked down at my hands. With a quick mutter of "Please let this work." And with a thought, I watched as I was able to metamorphmasise my hands.

_YES! I can still metamorphmasise! I can give myself wings and fly out of here!_

I sprang to my feet and with renewed energy, tried to picture the type and shape of the wings. Metamorphmasising things like my hair or eye colour were small changes and I had performed them so many times, it was as easy as anything. Metamorphmasising my entire body wasn't very difficult either, but perhaps needed a little more concentration. But metamorphmasising into non-human things were a little trickier. Humans are all made up of the same stuff inside; we all have a heart and lungs and kidneys etc. This means that generally when I changed into other humans, I never had to worry about changing my insides, expect perhaps if I was turning into a boy (if you know what I'm talking about). But when you start going into non-human creatures, it gets complicated. Animals or part-humans (Mermaids for instance) are different inside. It means having to think about the actual physiology of muscles, bones and nerves. It could be done, but it took a lot more concentration. I know from experience.

When I was seven, I went with my dad into a muggle bookshop and I saw a book with a picture of a mermaid on it. Not the real mermaids, who resemble fish much more than humans, but a pretty, cartoon version with long red hair, a green tail and purple shells over her boobs. I thought, as only seven year olds do, that she was the coolest thing ever and I wanted to be her. So, at home that night, I ran a bath, I figured I'd need to be in water, and without another thought, pictured myself as the beautiful drawing of the mermaid.

Needless to say, it went very wrong. My mother came running at my screams and I was in St Mungo's for a week. Instead of the beautiful green tail, my legs (which had gotten very confused) ended up half-fused together, covered in green fish scales. The bones and muscles and nerves were all jumbled up and _very_ painful.

After that traumatising experience, I didn't metamorphmasise for a while as I was terrified of doing something wrong.

As I thought about myself with wings, I concentrated on thinking about where exactly they would grow out from. I thought about blood supply, bones and muscles. It took a while until I was satisfied that I knew exactly what was cracking. With a squeeze of my eyes and a long hard think, I felt things appear out of my back. When it was over, I felt behind myself with my hands. Soft feathers. The lack of pain, I took as a good sign.

Okay, time to try them out. I didn't know the first thing about flying so it took a couple of attempts before anything happened. When I managed to get them to flap, it hurt. A lot.

_Did I do something wrong!?_ I thought panicky.

I felt the wings again, but they seemed to be alright.

I tried again and with another few flaps, I managed to lift off from the ground a few inches. But it was very wobbly and I fell straight down again.

In the end, it took me another half an hour before I was confident that I could actually fly with my wings. And when I took off, I found progress very slow. And tiring. Half way up, I felt another strange sensation and I knew that it was my magic returning to me.

By the time I got to the top, I was about ready to die from exhaustion. I didn't have enough energy to get rid of my wings because I was too busy collapsing on the ground and taking gigantic breaths of air.

* * *

I must have zoned out, or fallen asleep, when _CRACK!_ There was a medium sized explosion next to my head. In a flash, I was up on my feet, with my wand at the ready.

A hooded figure was standing fifty metres across from me. The hole I had flown out of seemed to have disappeared.

When another spell came speeding towards me, it was my fast reaction time that saved me by casting a quick shield spell.

While I was blocking the attacker's rapid string of spells, I had no time to go on the offensive.

My opponent was strong and had the fastest cast-rate I had ever seen. He was amazing, never mind the fact that he was attacking me.

I managed to showcase my talents for duelling and hoped that I could beat my opponent.

The duel lasted for a long while, and while I was growing increasingly tired, the hooded man seemed not weary at all.

Just when I thought I was about to be defeated, my attacker turned and strode towards a door, that had appeared a second earlier out of nowhere, and before I could shoot a spell towards him, vanished through it.

Perplexed, I decided I had better follow him, maybe he was leading me somewhere. And even if he wasn't, it was the only place to go and I didn't want to be stuck here forever.

With a quick jog, I didn't want the door to disappear or anything, I opened it and rushed through.

And found myself in the original office. I stopped in my tracks when I saw where I was. Was it over?

Scrimgeour was sitting at the long table along with Shacklebolt and Dawlish. My attacker was there as well, taking off his hood.

_No, it can't be!_ I was shocked to see that my attacker was none other than the famous Auror Mad-Eye Moody. He limped, how had I not notice his limp before?, to a chair at the table and sat down heavily, his fake bright blue eye resting on me while his other looked down at his hands, from which he was removing gloves.

"Well done, Miss Tonks.", Shacklebolt's deep voice was reassuring and warm.

I managed a smile, but I was so tired that I was ready to collapse. Instead I went and sat down on the chair in front of the long table.

"Your wings are impressive.", Shacklebolt commented.

"Huh?", I asked, a bit zoned out.

He nodded towards my wings which I had forgotten were still attached to my back.

"Oh! Thanks. I forgot they were still there.", I now had the tricky business of returning my body back to normal. The four Aurors watched as I closed my eyes, thought about my normal body with normal bones and everything and then metamorphmasised.

When I was done, Scrimgeour announced that I was free to go.

I stood and making my way out of the office and eventually back home, and falling onto my bed, went to sleep.

* * *

When I woke, my parents wanted a full blow-by-blow account of everything that happened. Then Chuck then Phillips then Fran later that week. Then Daisy. And so on.

By the time another letter from the Auror Office arrived the following week, I had told the story about fifty times.

The letter, which I made my mum open first, contained the best news I could think of.

I only just managed to keep in the tears of joy when I read the words, "We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted for Auror Training.".

My mum and dad declared that they were the proudest parents in the world and I went to bed that night with the biggest smile on my face: I had done it, _really_ done it!

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A/N: So. She's been accepted! Now for Auror training! I hope everyone's excited because I know I am! Next chapter either on Saturday/Sunday or Wednesday depending on how busy I am:) -Cloey


	15. Chapter 15

**DISCLAIMER:**** I do not own anything related to Harry Potter by J.K Rowling.**

Author's Note: Hello! I know that I said that I was going to update last Wednesday and I didn't so I apologize :( I don't really have much of an excuse because I updated my other story but deliberately didn't update this one because I'm running out of chapters that I've already written and unless I quickly find some inspiration soon, this story might end up having a hiatus. But we're not at that stage quite yet so... on with the chapter!

PS: This chapter is really short because this chapter concludes PART 1 of this story and I didn't want to mess up the specific parts that I've created. I will compensate for this pathetically short chapter with maybe an update tomorrow(although tomorrow is voting day here in South Africa so I might be a bit busy...)

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Chapter 21

On my first day of Auror training, I got up at six in the morning just because I was determined to be absolutely prepared.

When I arrived at the Auror Offices and made my way to the office in which I had to report to, I found an almost empty room. Only two other people were there. Both were boys.

"Where is everybody else?", I asked them. Surely there must be more trainees.

"I don't know, I think this is it.", said one of the boys. He had dark hair and a nice smile.

"I'm Tonks.", I walked over to the boy who had answered me with an outstretched hand.

"Rob.", he said, shaking my hand and showing me his nice smile again.

"I'm George.", the second boy walked over and shook my hand as well.

"Wait, you're George Ewing right? You were at Hogwarts.", George's sister Poppy had been a Ravenclaw girl in my year.

"Yeah, I took a year off to travel before applying for Auror training.".

"And you weren't at Hogwarts were you?", I asked Rob.

"No, I was home schooled-".

Before we could continue our talk, the door of the office opened and in clunked Mad-Eye Moody.

"Sit.", was all he said as he sat down at the one, large table in the room.

We did so.

"Today, you start one of the most difficult training programmes in the Wizarding world. Do not think that it is going to be easy.", he paused, assessing each one of us with his fake eye.

"You are going to be tired. You are going to get hurt. And many times over, you are going to wish you had never joined Auror training.", another pause.

"But, if by chance you _worms_ actually make it to the end of these next two years, you will have learned to become some of the most skilled wizards in the areas of combat, stealth and investigation!". The three of us sat there in awe of Mad-Eye Moody. And perhaps a little afraid.

"Constant vigilance!", he shouted so suddenly that we each started.

"That is my motto. And it will become yours. Never let your guard down and _never_ let the enemy see your weaknesses. Or you will die.".

By the end of the day, I was deeply impressed with Alastor Moody. But if I had ever thought that Auror training would be easy, I now knew much better. This was going to be harder than I thought it would...

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A/N: I'm sorry again for the length! Keep reading though! And I would love it if you would leave a review:D -CvZ


	16. Chapter 16

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything related to Harry Potter by J.K Rowling.  
**

A/N: Hi everyone, happy Wednesday to you all! This is the beginning of part 2. I know that many of you have been looking forward to reading about her time at Auror training with Made-Eye and a long time ago, when I was writing this, I did a lot of research about what Auror training consisted of etc. but when I actually sat down to write I realised that I wanted to get on with the story because otherwise I would get too caught up with describing every last detail and things needed to move along so I came up with the three "parts" of the story. Part 1: Hogwarts years and getting into Auror training. Part 2: Time as an auror and joining the Order. Part 3: Harry Potter and her life with Remus. So that's why the beginning of Part 2 here will first be a quick look at what will happen at the end of Part 2/start of Part 3. And then it moves onto Tonks finishing her Auror training. I hope you guys don't hate me for skipping over it but I promise you'll still see her kicking ass as an Auror! I hope you guys enjoy and I'm sorry for the ridiculously long Author's Note!

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PART 2

Chapter 22

_The air smelled too strongly of cleaning detergent. As my Auror training demanded, I quietly (as I could) went around the bottom floor of the house before I told Mad-Eye that there wasn't anyone downstairs. _

"_Upstairs then.", Mad-eye's gruff voice spoke to the whole group and we silently lifted our eyes to the door to his bedroom but did not make to move up the stairs: we didn't want to scare him. _

_The first time I met Harry Potter was in the most unusual place. When I thought about that night afterwards I laughed many times. And I'm sure others would too if they first met the Boy-who-lived in an over-neatened muggle house in Little Whinging, Surrey. _

_But more important than the where I met him, that night changed my life. That was the night I finally met the person that I was fighting for. _

* * *

I looked around me, into the darkness between the trees. It was over.

My eyes were caught by a sudden bright light emitted by a nearby pinecone.

I walked over to it. A portkey. I grabbed hold of it and felt the sudden jerk as I was transported back to the Auror Offices.

"Congrats Tonks!", Rob was the first to come and wish me well done. He pulled me into a hug and I laughed.

"We've done it! We've now officially finished Auror training!", George announced happily, also hugging me.

"Good work out there Tonks.", Mad-Eye limped towards me, with a surprisingly proud face.

I grinned at my mentor and pulled him into a hug, "Thanks Mad-Eye.", after the first couple of weeks, I had eventually worked up the courage to call him 'Mad-Eye' to his face, only to discover that he didn't mind at all. Mad-Eye had conducted almost all of our training and he was our mentor. He was tough, but he was the best and we had grown close to him.

"Time to celebrate, I'd say. You coming Mad-Eye?", Rob asked the Auror.

"Ha! And ruin your company with an old man's? No. I have work to do anyway. Remember you three-"

"Constant Vigilance!", the three of us finished and burst out laughing, we were so happy. Even Mad-Eye had a quick grin before, "Good. I've taught you well. You'll be receiving your results later this week along with further instructions.". With that he turned and limped off.

George, Rob and I knew that we wouldn't be allowed to have copious amounts of alcohol when, and if, we became Aurors so we didn't hold back on the fire whisky.

When I finally made my way back to my flat, in London, I was very drunk.

Luckily, my apparating skills weren't too affected by the booze and I got into bed and promptly fell asleep.

In the morning, while quickly flicking through the Daily Prophet, I saw two disturbing things.

One was an article was about a werewolf who had been teaching at Hogwarts that year. Surprised and interested, I read eagerly on. The werewolf's name was Remus Lupin.

_How terrifying!_ I thought, and flipped over the page where I saw the second interesting and terrifying article. It was about Sirius Black.

I sighed and read on. Since his infamous escape from Azkaban the year before, he had been in the news constantly, even on muggle news! My mum looked absolutely distraught every time she saw or heard news on him, he had been her favourite cousin until he had sold out James and Lily Potter and had declared himself ,publicly, loyal to Voldemort. She had cried for longer than she cared to admit and now that he was free, she was really angry.

This made me angry too, and every time there was anything about him, it grated my nerves especially because _everyone_ was talking about the vile man. The article said that he had escaped again and was now fleeing once more. _Fucking hell._

Hogwarts had been in the news a lot over the past three years, first it was all about Harry Potter. Then people were talking about the Philosopher's Stone. And of course the Chamber of Secrets, Hogwarts was nearly closed down because of it. And now this werewolf and Sirius Black. And to top it off, Hogwarts was holding the Triwizard Tournament this September!

Hell, school was never this fun and dangerous when I was there!

The next week was spent mainly idly waiting around at home for the letter that would seal my future. With my last Auror training assessment finished, there was only a letter informing me that I had passed my training and was now able to graduate as a fully-fledged Auror to be delivered.

Mad-Eye had said it would come in about a week and although I trusted my mentor completely, a doubt lay at the back of my mind. What if he was wrong and it took a month instead of a week? What if I hadn't passed at all and when he said 'well done' he really meant that he was disappointed in my performance and that I just wasn't good enough? Although I had aced the Disguise and Concealment part of the practical, I knew that my Stealth and Tracking part had been pathetic. I mentally shuddered at the thought of the almost huge noise and ruination of the entire operation I had made.

A minute later, after I had calmed my nerves, I reminded myself that Mad-Eye had told me many times himself that he thought that I had talent. And however queer he may appear at times, everyone, or at least those who knew him well, knew that he didn't lie to those he cared about. And he cared about us three trainees.

I thought back to the first time I had met him, when I had been so scared of him. I laughed loudly, grinning at the memory. Mad-Eye had been mine, Rob's and George's mentor since the beginning of Auror training and I had grown fond of him over the past three years. He was like a strange but incredibly wise old uncle. Many thought that the Auror had lost his marbles, but he was probably the most trustworthy person I knew. And to top it off, he was a bloody brilliant Auror. Most of the criminals and death eaters in Azkaban were there because he had caught them.

* * *

The morning was bright and my short purple hair was extra spiky and wild from sleep. Yawning, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and slowly made my way to the kitchen where I got some water boiling and bread toasting. Once breakfast was ready, I sat down at the kitchen table and turned on the Wireless to listen to the morning news, something that had become somewhat of a tradition for me since moving out of my parents' house. More of the same general rubbish. Some about the upcoming Quidditch World Cup and lots of Sirius Black.

A tapping at the window made me look up and see the Ministry owl.

Crap. I knew what it brought before I had even opened the window.

The Auror Office seal on the letter made my nerves to start tingling again.

The news it brought was amazing. Even with my terrible Stealth and Tracking marks, I had passed my Auror training with ease and was told to come for the Auror graduation in two weeks, on the fourth of August.

When the day came I proudly took my Auror vows with an overjoyed set of parents sitting with the other parents, a tough-looking bunch of Aurors standing watching; including Mad-Eye who I was pleased to see looked extra proud when it was my turn to say the vow; and two nervous and young soon-to-be-Aurors standing next to me.

One of the last people to come and congratulate us, was Mad-Eye who came to say a special congratulations to his ex-trainees.

He would be leaving the Ministry, he had stayed around to help with the training of the trainees. It had been an excellent plan: he was getting on in his years and although he would have carried on until his death, the Ministry wanted him to go but when there just weren't enough Aurors around to train the trainees, he had stepped in to help and thus got to stay around at the Auror office. But now that we were fully-fledged Aurors, the Ministry had insisted that he go.

A week ago he had told us that instead of retirement, Dumbledore had actually asked him to go and teach Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. Just for the year, and then he could go into the inactivity of retirement(which sounded so disgusting to him that he immediately accepted Dumbledore's offer).

Celebrations were in order soon after the ceremony and the three new Aurors and their families decided to go to a new restaurant in Diagon Alley together.

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A/N:  I really hope no one hates me for skipping the Auror training:( Please keep reading! Leave a review? Please?Next chapter will the Quidditch World Cup! -Cloey


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